Extra Bank Holidays

On a Ramblers' holiday in Spain we stayed in Caceres, a conquistador town in Extremadura, well away from tourist routes. Their local patron saint is St George and there was a big pageant that evening, attended, it seemed, by the whole town, culminating in the Saint riding a white horse onto the stage and slashing the dragon with his sword at which moment there was a spectacular fireworks display.
I am a neutral Scot on the subject, but was left wondering why, if one smallish town in Spain can put on a show like this, why doesn't England?

Shortening the working week won't make the millionaire bosses poorer and the workforce richer/happier. No way! The bosses of the huge corporations will continue to receive large salaries whatever. They will just raise prices to cover the 25% increase in their wages bills.

Meanwhile, the bosses of micro, small and medium businesses, many of whom work hands-on beside their workforce and don't earn any more than their most skilled workers (if that - read gillybob's posts) will have closed down and gone to work for the multinationals. Globalisation, here we come.

There is a tendency for some posters to assume that all bosses are millionaires in charge of enormous enterprises employing thousands.

Here are a few definitions and statistics.

"Small businesses accounted for 99.3% of all private sector businesses at the start of 2016 and 99.9% were small or medium-sized (SMEs).
Total employment in SMEs was 15.7 million; 60% of all private sector employment in the UK.
The combined annual turnover of SMEs was £1.8 trillion, 47% of all private sector turnover in the UK.
SMEs account for at least 99% of the businesses in every main industry sector. "
www.fsb.org.uk/media-centre/small-business-statistics

"Under EU law, a micro company has fewer than 10 employees and a turnover or balance sheet total no greater than €2m. A small company has less than 50 employees and turnover/balance sheet total no greater than €10m. A medium-sized company has fewer than 250 employees, a turnover no greater than €50m and a balance sheet totalof no more than €43m."
lexicon.ft.com/Term?term=small-and-medium-enterprises-SMEs

"Micro-enterprises overall (0-9 employees, so including sole traders) accounted for 32.5 per cent of employment and 20 per cent of total business turnover. "
www.enterprisenation.com/blog/how-many-small-businesses-are-there/

We had a St George dragon slaying enactment in our high st which was enjoyed by all the children. Fancy dress competition and food and drinks provided. Every other country in the UK have their own special day so why not the English too? They celebrate St Patrick, St David and St Andrew, so why not St George? I think it should be a Bank Holiday and if people do not want to celebrate it then so be it but those who do should have the day off. Life is not all about MONEY, MONEY, MONEY! Give the workers a break for goodness sake. Paid volunteers could keep the shops etc open if they would rather work.

With the 24/7 economy bank holidays are of less and less relevance to many people who need to work these days, bank holidays or not. Why not scrap all except a few; Christmas, Easter, New Year and replace them with mandatory paid leave, which is added onto the mandatory hourly living wage for the week involved to ensure that zero hour contract workers get it as well as those on standard working contracts

Spare a thought for the self-employed and all those people who don't get paid for holidays. Also, all the extra money that will be paid to hospital workers, fire fighters, police, etc. who have to work on a bank holiday.

St Edmund's Day! - bring back England's rightful patron saint, get rid of the usurper George! And Edmund's day is November, when we could do with a bit of cheer!

quizequeen, freedom from what? The Roman Empire?

Quizqueen Yes, perhaps the June Independence Day......

Exactly gilly and what about all shopworkers/garden centres etc they will be expected to work as usual.
The country doesn't need more rest days/shopping days and all this Victorian idea of villainous millionaires holding their workers noses to the grindstone is ridiculous( do we have Victorian living standards? No.)

Wouldn't it be ideal if we could just turn the whole thing on it's head and work 28 days a year and take all the rest as holidays? On full pay of course

Isn't a terrible thing that, we, the workers should have the opportunity to raise our noses from the grindstone for a few days? How the millionaires will suffer if they cannot squeeze more profits from the workforce

No disrespect intended at all but this is a typically ignorant opinion of actual business in the UK Coco51. Which consist of 99% SME's not big fat cat millionaire owners at all, just ordinary people working hard and helping to create jobs for people like you and your family.

We should have an 'Independence' Day bank holiday to celebrate our nation's freedom. Not many people are really interested in celebrating Saints' Days

I really don't think we in the UK can compare ourselves with other countries such as Spain, France or Germany. They have very different lifestyles than we do, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. Take Spain for example, yes they typically have more public holidays than we do but their economy is in a mess. They also heavily rely on tourism. Their working day is very different to ours, as is their climate.

I have also noticed that whilst we may not have as many public holidays, we tend to give a lot longer paid maternity leave etc.than many other countries and I think its all a matter of swings and roundabouts.

I imagine many young working people would relish an extra 4-5 days or even another 20 days.... what does it matter? Prices will need to rise accordingly to make up for the shortfall in productivity.

May Day / Early May bank holiday. Exactly the same, just splitting hairs to suggest otherwise.

Please also bear in mind that many people do not automatically get bank holidays as actual days off (on the day). My DD works in a coffee shop and only ever gets one guaranteed holiday which is Easter day (Easter Sunday) as the shops are not allowed to open. Every other day she can be on rota to work and has to take the day some other time. This is typical for almost every shop worker and many of those in the NHS, police and other essential services too.

Isn't a terrible thing that, we, the workers should have the opportunity to raise our noses from the grindstone for a few days? How the millionaires will suffer if they cannot squeeze more profits from the workforce!

Life does not begin and end with work. Family relationships will be there when you are made redundant, sacked or retire. Cherish the opportunity to be with them.

Maybe we could have pop up holidays, so that when the weather looks especially nice they could announce that we can have tomorrow off.

Not sure how the BoE think we spend more on bank holidays if we haven't got any more to spend. I am not wanting another bank holiday wash out...........

Our local school has just had 2 weeks and 2 days Easter holiday. The children returned to school yesterday. Next week they are off Monday (May Day) and Thursday (local elections) and now they will be closed for a day in June for the general election. Summer holidays start at the end of June. I feel really sorry for working parents.

I expect the 'policy advisor' who thunk up this banana had overindulged at the weekend.

Hope Corbyn doesn't smoke as there's a lot of white space on the fag packet these days in which to doodle the rest of his manifesto.

More family gatherings or go off for long weekends more often.

If the French and Germans can accomplish profitable work with more days off, why not the UK?

What would you do on all those extra bank holidays that you'd love, Norah, out of interest?

I doubt small businesses would Norah

I would love more statutory and bank holidays. French and Germans have plentiful holiday time. And yes to St. George Day as a holiday as it was hundreds of years ago.

In the UK , 28 days holiday less 8 bank holidays leaves 20 days annual holidays, a five day week gives 4 weeks annual holiday

rosesarered... 5 weeks as in the UK, and generally speaking a 35 hour working week, but that may change. Hollande tried to extend the hours but met with stiff opposition from unions ( as usual!)

Easter was 17th April St George's Day 23 April, why should Wales or Ireland change their St's day ?