Crass and ignorant
I was going to have a go at the idea of a new Bank Holiday, whether it be Britain Day, Europe Day, or any other day. If the government feels that we need yet another day off work - paid for by employers - then fine; let's debate the merits of another day's statutory paid holiday.
But the whole notion of a day which the state decrees that we all take off from work is so archaic as to be ridiculous in the modern world. For one thing, with so many shops and businesses open on Bank Holidays, they aren't nationl holidays any more. They are arbitrary days off for one segment of the working population.
It surely makes much more sense to have a certain number of statutory days off guaranteed by law, which those of us who have an employer can then arrange to use as we see fit, rather than as the government decreees. And the rest of us, who get paid only when we chose to work - freelancers, in other words, and the self-employed - can carry on working as too see fit.
So, as I say, I was going to write about the broad issue when I saw this post by Sarah Standing on the Coffee House page, It's a perfectly inoffensive piece for the most part on the fatuity of a Britain Day. And then this:
We never needed a day to remind us of our worth and I suspect, should British Day be enforced on us, it will mainly celebrated by illegal immigrants living in our great country thrilled to have yet another day off.Hello? What a crass remark. I've no idea of Ms Standing's domestic circumstances but I'd be amazed if, like most of us, she hasn't at some point employed an illegal immigrant to do something around her house because there wasn't a native-born Brit willing or able to do it for a fair price. And I wonder if she has the slightest idea about illegal immigration in this country. All the evidence shows not only the extent to which the economy needs their work, but how much better off we'd all be if immigrants whom we categorise as illegal were allowed to work legitimately and thus to contribute to the tax system. Such ignorant, crass remarks about immigrants, legal or otherwise, are the bane of this country's racial harmony.
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Tim Worstall
June 6th, 2007 11:43amBritain Day should be Oct 2.
Anniversary of the day we hung drew and quartered the last native Prince of Wales.
That was the start of the whole concept of Britishness after all.
David Lucas
June 6th, 2007 2:29pmBizzare comment from Sarah Standing indeed - the one thing you can be pretty sure of is that illegals will likely be working just as hard as ever.
I think the idea sticks in the craw because we all know it is a cynical part of Gordon's attempt to finesse the Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath Question
But what would be a good cause for a holiday chez Pollard? Trafalgar Day? Act of Union day? Start of the flat racing season?
Joshua
June 6th, 2007 3:14pmBritain Day should be March 16 to commemorate the massacre of Jews at Clifford's Tower in York in 1190. Surely no day is more appropriate given the tsunami of anti-Semitism currently sweeping through Britain. As to what would be good cause for a holiday chez Joshua, that would be the day the last Jew leaves Britain.
simonh
June 6th, 2007 10:20pm"As to what would be good cause for a holiday chez Joshua, that would be the day the last Jew leaves Britain" This is the kind of comment I would expect to read on on an extremist Islamist or BNP website.