Following on from our recent poll which indicated that 88% of our readers thought that St. George’s day should be an official bank holiday, Jeremy Corbyn this week confirmed that the next Labour government will create four more paid bank holidays each year to mark the patron saints of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland.
These public holidays will take place from March to November, with his party proposing the four nations work together to ensure that everyone in the UK has the same days off. One of the public holidays will mark St George’s Day on 23 April.
Mr Corbyn previously suggested the bank holidays policy in the run-up to the 2017 General Election. Currently the UK has eight public holidays – the fewest of any G20 or EU country.
The bank holidays would be –
St David’s Day, patron saint of Wales – 1 March
St Patrick’s Day, patron saint of Ireland – 17 March
St George’s Day, patron saint of England – 23 April
St Andrew’s Day, patron saint of Scotland – 30 November.
On the proposal to make St George’s Day a bank holiday, Mr Corbyn recently said “It will be a day where we can all show our pride and celebrate our country’s tradition of fairness, inclusivity and social justice.”
“Eight years of Tory austerity, which Labour will bring to an end, have had a disastrous effect on our vital public services and workers have paid a heavy price in the cost of living and their working lives. We will give our workers four extra days paid holiday,”
Mr Corbyn’s speech also took aim at the Government over the Windrush scandal – which has seen British residents who have lived here for decades threatened with deportation – saying that the UK is more “divided” as a result of the Conservative’s “damaging and divisive policies”.
“Our values of a fair and inclusive society are our country’s best values, and those shared values will be celebrated by making St George’s Day a national holiday.”
Do you think that more paid bank holidays are a good thing for the country?
