Yesterday's dump of snow brought an impromptu day off to many in the South of England. Most of us enjoyed stomping around in 15 to 30 centimetres of soft, fresh snow, making the most of the unexpected day off. In the parks, people built snowmen, tobogganed down any available incline and marveled at the drifts of snow hanging on the tree branches.
Today as I trudged into work, albeit on an emptier than usual London Underground, the thought slid into my brain that here in the UK we could do with a couple more sanctioned days off. The English and Welsh get two days for Easter, the first and last Monday in May, another day in August, two more for Christmas and Boxing Day and one to celebrate Janus. A grand total of 8. Going back in time, at least on Wikipedia, we used to get 37 days (a mixed bag of religious observations), but I guess that back then we didn't have employment rights guaranteeing us time off.
In the other nations of the Union, Scotland get nine days while Northern Ireland get ten. Even the old USofA get ten days of public holidays. A quick troll through No. 10's website (note how prettily the party apartchiks use the BETA term to indicate this isn't really a live site, only it is because it's in the public domain and therefore "live" to everyone!) reveals how many petitions are out there for these extra days. Even two years ago, the BBC was in on the act.
To date, Government spin has suggested that additional days off celebrating national identities, like St George's day or St David's day, make it difficult to create an agenda that meets everyone's liking. I'd like to suggest that the Government has "done nothing" (a familiar phrase trotted out these last few months) to put forward one or two more days off for the "hard working families" in this country.
I guess that leaves us still in the "hard working" category with no additional benefits in sight. I wonder if el Gord will use his remaining days in power to gift us extra days off to enjoy his recession?
Oh dear.
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