St David's Day should be a national holiday
Tuesday, February 27, 2007

In two days time Wales celebrates St David's Day, but the grind of daily life will go on as usual.

Despite this, all four political leaders in the assembly have called to make March 1st a bank holiday and 11,034 have signed a petition on the government's website demanding the same. That's almost double the amount of signatures in support of a national holiday on St George's Day.

In fact, it's quite rare for the assembly to agree on something so emphatically: seven years ago they voted unanimously in support of giving us a day off to celebrate our Welshness.

But this debate has really been a case, as with dear Dewi Sant, of the blind leading the blind. The assembly voted in the full knowledge that it didn't have the primary legislative powers needed to implement it. And the man who matters, aga-loving Welsh Secretary Peter Hain, remains unconvinced.

It may seem trivial, but giving St David's Day the status it deserves should be a priority for whoever inherits the assembly's new powers on May 4th (he is after all the only indigenous patron saint in the British Isles).

The UK currently celebrates only eight national holidays each year. That's compared to 10 in the USA, 13 in France and 20 in Japan. There's plenty of room for another day off. And if it means I can drink copious amounts of Brains and eat cheese on toast all day then I'll be happy.

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