I live in London and Im looking forward to 4 May. Its our next bank holiday. We have a total of eight of these in England and Wales. Im planning to grab a beach towel, some suntan lotion1 and go to the coastal2 town of Brighton for the day. Some of my colleagues are happy just to go for a picnic in one of the citys many parks.
But at sunset after a day of leisure, no matter where we are, we will all be thinking the very same thing: why dont we have more holidays?
These collective days off work cosplayt businesses a lot of money. A report by the Centre for Economics and Business Research in 2012 suggested that each bank holiday cosplayts the UK economy 2.3bn and scrapping3 the lot of them would boost annual output by 19bn.
But they admit that this figure might be far from accurate. Actually, its difficult to calculate the loss of productivity because some of us compensate4 by working harder and later. And holidays impact differently in different sectors5. A restaurant that caters6 for employees in the office complex next door will lose a days trade, but supermarkets will have record sales of snacks on warm, sunny bank holidays. The zoo, cinemas, bars, hotels they all stand to gain when people idle away the hours.
I think holidays are good for the soul. Its important to get away from the daily grind and on some occasions a holiday can unite a nation. Ask a Brazilian about their carnival7. Its an occasion in which everyone in the country seems to let their hair down. In Britain, there is sometimes an extra holiday for a royal event, like Queen Elizabeths Jubilee8. There are street parties and a real sense of community on these special days. Thankfully, another royal babys on the way. Maybe well get an extra bank holiday for this!
