On the history & politics of Bank Holidays
Neo-Liberals don’t like people having holidays when they should be working (they take holidays themselves obviously) and that perhaps is the reason why there is more noise around the August Bank Holiday.
It was moved from the first to the last Monday of the month temporarily in 1965 and permanently in 1971. It was not changed in Scotland, not btw because of prejudices about the Scottish weather but because the nights begin to draw in earlier the further north you go.
I tend to agree with the Guardian (Editorial) that it would be better to move the holiday back to the first Monday with some important caveats.
Firstly the Editorial writer doesn’t know why the change was made. From the late 1940s there was pressure from the leisure industry, industry itself and the TUC to soften the focus on a summer holiday period that was very much around the end of July and early August including the Bank Holiday. It was felt that encouraging a wider spread of holidays was a good thing.
I agree but I think this has happened now anyway, although school terms still provide restrictions for all involved in education.
Secondly Britain does not have enough Bank Holidays. That doesn’t mean that May Day should be abolished and replaced with Trafalgar Day or Margaret Thatcher Day in the autumn. It does mean that we need to have at least one more public holiday between August and the end of December and the same between January and Easter. Ive always favoured 30th January but I appreciate that is a touchy subject even 370 years on
Finally the Guardian argues that changing working patterns mean that Bank Holidays are no longer really special. It might be an idea to step outside of Guardian HQ in Kings Cross on 26th August and have a look around.
Not only are there lots of people working on the day who would probably prefer not to be (with pay), for those who are not working it is likely to be one of the very few Mondays in the year when work does not interrupt them. Of course I can take Monday off in any week but that doesn’t stop the mails and calls. On Bank Holiday Monday it does though.
The daylight in Scotland actually lasts longer than in England right up until the equinox in September. But Scotland is generally further west than England which means their solar clocks run slightly slow by GMT but it seems more likely that it is more to do with school terms and the generally colder climate which means people prefer an ealier ‘summer’ holiday.