UK: Renewed Calls For Fall Public Holiday

Sources: Travel Weekly, The Daily Mail, and UK public holidays. Over the last 12 months, there have been many calls for a new UK public holiday, based on the fact that, at 9 public holidays, the UK are in second t last place in the EU, and the long gap between the summer bank holiday, in August, and Christmas (see our posts of August 28, July 24, and June 27).

There have even been 2 official petitions, on the 10 Downing Street website; the first one for the establishment of a new public holiday on February 12 (Darwin's Birthday), and the second one for the establishment of a National Remembrance Holiday on the second Monday in November.

In that context, travel giant, Thomas Cook, is launching a massive advertising campaign to pressure the government to add another bank holiday to the UK's list of public holidays (recall that in the UK, the term bank holiday means that all businesses are closed, not only banks as is the case in North America, for example).

UK's PM In Favour Of New Public Holiday

Sources: The Daily Mail, and UK public holidays. Speaking on GMTV, earlier this week, Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, said he would look at ideas for an extra bank holiday (recall that in the UK, public holidays when everything is closed, are called bank holidays, as opposed to most of the rest of the world where the term "bank holidays" means a day when only banks and financial establishments are closed).

The most likely candidates, at this time, are: British Forces Day (Monday closest to Armistice Day), April 23 (St George's Day as well as being Shakespeare's birthday), July 5 (anniversary of the birth of the NHS), and July 24 (Volunteers' Day, also touted as "Britishness Day").

More frivolous suggestions have included: Beatles Day on February 9 (the day the band first played at the Cavern Club) and Diana Day (on the Monday closest to Diana Spencer's birthday on July 1).

Recall that over the last 12 months, there have been many calls for a new UK public holiday, based on the fact that, at 9 public holidays, the UK are in second to last place in the EU, and the long gap between the summer bank holiday, in August, and Christmas (see our posts of December 26, August 28, July 24, and June 27). For that reason, the most likely (and also the one specifically mentioned by name by Gordon Brown) option would be to make the Monday after/nearest to November 11 a public holiday.

UK Trafalgar Public Holiday Abandoned

Sources: UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport (London) and UK bank holidays and public holidays (qppstudio.net). A spokesman from the UK's Department for Culture, Media and Sport, has announced that the UK government had dropped the previously-announced plans to create an annual non-working public holiday commemorating the Battle of Trafalgar. [full story]

UK 2012 Combined Olympics And Diamond Jubilee Public Holiday Deemed Likely

Sources: The Guardian and UK public holidays (qppstudio.net). In the running saga of the search for a new UK public holiday, a new idea has recently surfaced; that of making the 2012 Tuesday after the Summer Bank Holiday (in between the culmination of the Olympics and the start of the Paralympics) a public holiday, thus creating a 4-day public holiday. The reasoning is that 2012 is the year of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee (60 years on the throne) and that a special one-off public holiday was declared for the Golden Jubilee in 2002.

There are however some issues with the above idea, notwithstanding the fact that a new bank holiday requires a Royal Proclamation to be implemented. First, the Summer Bank Holiday is on a different date in Scotland than the rest of the UK. Secondly, in 2002, the late May bank holiday was cancelled to make way for the early June Golden Jubilee holiday, leading one to wonder if a consensus could be reached on which 2012 public holiday to cancel. Finally, if current proposals being considered by Gordon Brown for a bank holiday to honour the armed forces were implemented, a further holiday in 2012 would be much less likely.

UK Unlikely To Declare St George's Day Public Holiday

Sources: Press Association (London) and UK bank holidays and public holidays (qppstudio.net). The UK's Conservative Party has announced that making St George's Day a public holiday (or bank holiday as public holidays are called in the UK) is not part of the Conservative Party's policy, should they win the upcoming general elections.

July 24 Selected For UK's Volunteer Day Pulic Holiday

Sources: The Telegraph and UK public holidays. Following up on our news story of June 27, the new UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has announced that he is set to make July 24 a national day for celebrating volunteering - and possibly make it a new bank holiday (in the UK, bank holidays are full, national, public holidays, as the rest of the world knows them).

UK Trafalgar Public Holiday Proposed

Sources: The Guardian (London) and UK bank holidays and public holidays (qppstudio.net). The UK's Minister for Tourism, John Penrose, has suggested replacing the early May bank holiday with an October 21 annual non-working public holiday (or bank holiday, as public holidays are called in the UK) commemorating the Battle of Trafalgar. [full story]

UK Rejects New Religious Public Holidays

Sources: YouGov (London) and UK bank holidays and public holidays (qppstudio.net). The UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has issued its decision on another petition to declare 2 new annual non-working public holidays (aka. bank holidays in the UK), one for the Hindu festival of Diwali, and another one for one of the "Eid" Muslim festivals. [full story]

UK Britishness Public Holiday Back To The Fore

Sources: Christian Science Monitor, Bloomberg and UK public holidays. The new UK Prime Minster, Gordon Brown, is quoted as favoring a new public holiday – a "British day" – to promote a sense of British identity as a way to unite increasingly disparate social and religious groups. Although the above-quoted news article do not mention any possible date for this new UK public holiday, previous articles did mention the month of June as likely.

UK Unveils May Day Public Holiday Options

Sources: BBC (London) and UK bank holidays and public holidays (qppstudio.net). The UK Government has unveiled plans to replace the early May public holiday in the UK by either St George's Day, in April, or Trafalgar Day, in October. [full story]

UK Confirms Royal Wedding Public Holiday In 2011

Sources: The Guardian (London) and UK bank holidays and public holidays (qppstudio.net). The UK's Prime Minister, David Cameron, has announced that the Cabinet had agreed to declare Friday, April 29, 2011, as a one-off public holiday in the UK. [full story]

UK Could Declare Additional 2011 Public Holiday

Sources: BBC (London) and UK bank holidays and public holidays (qppstudio.net). UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, has said that he would like a one-off public holiday declared on the occasion of the wedding of Prince William, tentatively scheduled for the spring or summer of 2011. [full story]

UK Moving Towards Cornish Public Holiday

Sources: The Guardian (London) and UK bank holidays and public holidays (qppstudio.net). The corporate resources overview and scrutiny committee of the UK's City Council of Cornwall have approved the idea of making St Piran's Day into a new annual regional bank/public holiday on March 5th. [full story]

UK Government Responds To Calls For New Annual Public Holiday

Sources: The official site of the Prime Minister's Office and UK public holidays (qppstudio.net). The government of the United Kingdom has posted an official response to last year's e-petition “... to create a new public holiday, the National Remembrance Holiday to commemorate The Fallen and our Nation, with the holiday falling on the second Monday in November each year, the day after Remembrance Sunday”.

The response does not dismiss the idea of an additional annual public holiday (called bank holidays in the UK), but does point out that the Royal British Legion, and many others, feel that a public holiday, and associated drinking and merry-making, close to Remembrance Day, would be inappropriate. Some alternatives mentioned in the response would be VE-Day (May 8), D-Day (June 6) or the current Veterans' Day (June 27).

UK Mulls Wales Public Holidays Bill

Sources: BBC News (BBC) and UK bank holidays and public holidays (qppstudio.net). The Private Members' Bill "Devolution (Bank Holidays) (Wales) Bill 2015-16" has been introduced in the UK House of Commons under the "Ten Minute Rule" (SO No 23) by MP Mark Williams, and had its first reading. [full story]

UK Votes Queen's 2012 Diamond Jubilee Public Holiday

Sources: Mail on Sunday (London) and UK bank holidays and public holidays (qppstudio.net). Last night, the UK Parliament approved a bill creating an additional one-off public holiday to commemorate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, in 2012.

UK Mulls Royal Baby Public Holiday

Sources: YouGov (London) and UK bank holidays and public holidays (qppstudio.net). According to a recent poll by the internet-based market research firm YouGov, the UK public is evenly split on whether another one-off public holiday should be declared for the upcoming birth/christening of the child of Prince William and Kate Middleton. [full story]

UK Mulls NI Peace Public Holiday

Sources: The Irish Examiner (Cork) and UK bank holidays and public holidays (qppstudio.net). The British Labour Party has proposed that a new non-working public holiday (aka. bank holiday, in the UK) should be created in Northern Ireland to celebrate the achievements of the peace process since the Good Friday agreement of the late nineties. [full story]

UK 10-Year Public Holidays Bill Next Week

Sources: House of Commons Information Office (HCIO) and UK bank holidays and public holidays (qppstudio.net). Next Tuesday, Conservative backbencher Andrew Rosindell is scheduled to ask leave to introduce a Bill into the UK House of Commons which would require the Secretary of State to annually prepare and publish a list of the public holidays and bank holidays for the 10 years to come. [full story]

UK Magna Carta Anniversary Public Holiday Bill

Sources: House of Commons Hansard Debates (London) and UK bank holidays and public holidays (qppstudio.net). The UK's House of Commons has accepted for consideration the "Magna Carta Anniversary (Bank Holiday) Bill", which would designate Monday, June 15, 2015, as a one-off non-working public holiday in the United Kingdom to mark the 800th anniversary of the signing of Magna Carta. [full story]