An October Bank Holiday: Does Trafalgar Day beckon?
Visit Britain, the UK Tourism body has raised the issue of whether there should be an additional Bank Holiday in October. They had in mind of course the reality that the two May Bank Holidays have not helped a struggling tourism industry and extending the season into October might help, jobs as well as profits.
I doubt the Government is likely to agree for several reasons. Firstly because having more Bank Holidays is most recently a Labour idea. Secondly because Tories don’t like people having holidays when they should be working (they take holidays themselves obviously).
The idea of a later Bank Holiday has been a popular one in the tourist industry for a long time.
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.
That was why from 1965 the August Bank Holiday was moved from the first Monday of the month to the last (except in Scotland where winter is already setting in by the end of August…).
No doubt the proposal would be to have an October Bank Holiday to mark Trafalgar Day (21st October) just the kind of patriotic flag waving occasion that would appeal to Johnson.
Trafalgar Day marks Nelson’s victory against the French and Spanish fleets in 1805 but flag wavers beware.
In 1803 Nelson gave evidence in the trial of the revolutionary Colonel Despard who was found guilty of treason and hung. Nelson spoke up in support of Despard.
Their patriotism and ours perhaps….
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Despard_Plot
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