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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not want mayday bank holiday to move to either March, April or October

30 replies

welshdeb · 04/03/2011 08:02

I'm as patriotic as the next person but I actually like a day off in May when the weather has a reasonable chance if being nice.

I don't want to be forced to have a day off in early March (st David's day) or if you are English st Georges day in April, or Trafalgar day in October.

OP posts:
JiltedJohnsJulie · 04/03/2011 08:05

Me too welsh.

Original poster
welshdeb · 04/03/2011 08:13

St David's day is a big thing in welsh schools, the kids dress up, piccies in the papers, singing, dancing, eisteddfod (sp) daffodils etc. So the dc would either miss out on this or they would do it all on the 2nd of March instead ... So pointless.
Also wales would have st David's day and england st georges day so how confusing for people/ businesses living on the Borders .

OP posts:
nannyl · 04/03/2011 08:18

agree

can imagine if they move it to April, some years it will end up clashing with or being very close to Easter.

I wouldnt mind an extra long weekend in June or July though!

OhYouBadBadKitten · 04/03/2011 08:28

June would be nice. But moving it to when the weather is always rubbish is pointless and a waste of a day off.

seaweedhead · 04/03/2011 08:44

Why can't they just keep May day and give us an extra bank holiday?

IShallWearMidnight · 04/03/2011 08:55

welshdeb - it would be fine having different bank holidays on each side of the border - in Scotland each town has different days (they don't do bank holidays in the same way), so you don't have the whole country trying to get to the same places on the same weekend. You just need to remember when your neighbouring businesses are closed.

curlymama · 04/03/2011 08:59

I don't mind them changing the bank holiday, I just don't see why it has to be that one.

Unless the government want to try and make it harder for people to take part in May Day protests, and I think that is the real reason they are doing this.

Jajas · 04/03/2011 08:59

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

DorisIsAPinkDragon · 04/03/2011 09:04

My day is a holiday across much of the (western) world, (afaik only America doesn't) It is seen very much as a workers day, so curlymama I beleive it is most definitely that has a large bearing on things. (They've already tried to move it once that wasn't popular so now they want to argue the tourism line (which I don't believe for a minute).

PoisoningPigeonsInThePark · 04/03/2011 10:17

If it moved to a time of year when the weather has a very good chance of being nice - so it will not cost a fortune to entertain the DC fair enough. Can sit in garden take DC down the park and have some fun family time which is often possibly by May.

But March or October - why a day off when the weather is very likely to be cold wet or some other way crap. April might be better but Easter does tend to fall there a lot.

PoisoningPigeonsInThePark · 04/03/2011 10:20

I have never felt the need to do anything for St Georges Day - am I odd in this? Is there some kind of traditional activity that I should be doing with the DC?

Quenelle · 04/03/2011 10:20

I like May Day because the weather is often good. The end of May (Whitsun) one could be moved for all I care because the weather's often crap.

It would be a complete waste to have a day off in March, April or October though. And Easter is in March or April anyway.

SpringchickenGoldBrass · 04/03/2011 10:20

I don't want it moved either. I have been a Morris dancer for years and Mayday is one of our big days (though a lot of us like to dance on St George's Day as well). Why should it be moved in the first place?

MackerelOfFact · 04/03/2011 10:26

I don't understand why April or October would be "better for tourism" than May. May has some of the loveliest weather of the year, and surely the appeal of Mayday carnivals, fetes, maypoles, morris dancing etc would be a bigger pull to tourists than 'Trafalgar Day' (whatever the hell one does for that) in drab October.

By all means add extra days in April and October to bring us more into line with the rest of Europe with our public holidays, but don't scrap Mayday. Agree that the Union/protest connection is probably the main reason the Tories want to scrap it.

CMOTdibbler · 04/03/2011 10:26

I'd like it in October - there's loads around the spring, and then nothing between the end of August and Christmas

MrsMellowDrummer · 04/03/2011 10:28

What will happen to all the Maypoles??????

They clearly haven't thought this through. Humph.

ben5 · 04/03/2011 10:28

moved to australia in june 09 and they always have australia day off not the nearest monday. there are often free entertainment fireworks and great pride in the day. something the uk could look into.
have also very close family links to padstow, cornwall. where the day is celebrated as the first day of spring. so for this reason i think the uk should have may day and st georges/davids/patricks/andrews days and feel proud to be the UK. something that is lacking in the Uk

BuzzLiteBeer · 04/03/2011 10:33

There's talking about moving bank holidays in the UK? Why? Did someone need a job so a £300,00 thinking group could be set up to discuss it?

Here we have Jan, March, April, MAy, June, August and October.

PoisoningPigeonsInThePark · 04/03/2011 10:43

Perhaps it because the Government has a lot wealthy individuals who can jump on plains and head off to southern Europe for a bit of sun on a long weekend and therefore can not see why the rest of the UK might want to keep their bank holidays in late spring and summer months? Or is that too cynical?

PoisoningPigeonsInThePark · 04/03/2011 10:44

planes - I think I meant there Blush.

SGertie · 04/03/2011 10:45

YANBU. When I heard the news my first though was about the weather being better in May than March/April/October. Also March/April are too close to Easter.
I've never heard of tourists going somewhere because it's a bank hol (WTF!!) and think you've hit the nail on the head. It's purely to stop May Day demonstrations.
Having said that, it would be good for England to become a bit more patriotic about St George's Day. Just not with a rejigged bank holiday

JenaiMarrHePlaysGuitar · 04/03/2011 11:05

It's political.

Have I imagined this (won't be the first time) or did Thatcher's government ditch May Day for ideological reasons?

JenaiMarrHePlaysGuitar · 04/03/2011 11:14

Have Googled. Some of them tried but May Day survived.

I unfairly and inaccurately attribute all sorts of things to Tories Grin

The tourism argument is utter bollocks. Surely it's better to have a holiday when other countries have one too? Confused

PoisoningPigeonsInThePark · 04/03/2011 11:17

JenaiMarrHePlaysGuita according to a thread in chat it has only been a bank holiday since 1978.

It just seems wrong that prior to this all May pole dancing in the village I grew up in and Morris dancing from DH old town must have occurred on another day. But then it has been a bank holiday almost as long as I have been alive - which seems very long to me.

TooManyPufflesInMyIgloo · 04/03/2011 11:17

If they move it to October it will get included in the October half-term so the actual extra day off school will be some random other time in the school calendar. Probably tacked onto the summer holidays or the May half-term, knowing my school, so that is fine by me!

If they do it actually on St George's day that will be a pain cos it won't necessarily be a Friday or a Monday. If they just do something like the 3rd Monday in April then at least half the time that's going to be in the Easter holidays so, same result as an October bank holiday.