As far as I can check the Mail and the Telegraph have been quiet but Trafalgar Day usually provokes call for the abolition of the early May (May Day) Bank Holiday with the suggestion that October 21st would be a good replacement.
I doubt the Government is likely to agree for several reasons. Having more Bank Holidays doesn’t fit when the zeitgeist is that people should be working to boost the economy.
The idea of a later Bank Holiday has however 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)
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 all the main parties.
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….
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