Monday, November 12, 2007

For Once A Good Idea

I’ve just received the following email:

Number 10 Downing Street has approved a petition that was launched requesting a new public holiday falling on the Monday after Remembrance Sunday in November each year. To be known as the National Remembrance Holiday, its purpose is threefold:

1) To emphasise the remembrance of those servicemen and women who have given, and continue to give, their lives for Britain.

2) To remind people of the importance of protecting our Nation and what it stands for.

3) To break the 3 month period between the August Public Holiday and Christmas when there are currently no long weekends, especially as the UK has fewer public holidays than most European countries.

If you are in agreement, please sign up to the petition - it only takes a few moments - and it would be great if you were minded to forward the link to other people as well.

The petition is available on-line at:
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/remembermonday/

Seems like a jolly good idea to me...

10 comments:

The Poet Laura-eate said...

Great idea! Especially if it follows the trend of the two minute silence and we end up with extra days off in memory of all kinds of things!

Seriously though, it is heartening that someone or other is realising that in an increasingly meaningless world, we need to hang onto some meaning to make sense of it all.

per.pri said...

As long as it is done for the right reasons, fair enough. But if it is just being used as a 'good reason' to have a day off I think it would be a bad idea as it digresses from the whole point of Remembrance.

Steve said...

I must admit my reaction, although mostly very positive, did have an ambivalent edge to it: unfortunately some people will see it as merely a good excuse for a day off. But these are the same people who ignore the true meaning of Christmas, Easter, May Day, etc, etc. At the end of the day the Government and other official bodies have long been considering extra Bank Holidays to bring us into line with Europe but nobody has been sure what exactly these days should be set aside for. Personally I'd much rather they were set aside for a meaningful reason than a frivolous one and I think a Remembrance Day is about as meaningful as you're going to get. How the individual chooses to spend that day is, however, a matter of personal choice, freedom and conscience.

Anybody decent though will bear in mind what the day is for. Also, given the war like stance of our Government at the moment I don't think it would do any harm to send them a message that the ordinary people of the UK haven't forgotten how utterly stupid and wasteful wars are...

Annie G said...

Brilliant - I've signed the petition Steve. Thank you for bringing it to our attention.

Trevor Gay said...

Hi Steve - this is Trevor - Annie's other half.

I agree with your sentiments about Remembrance Day. I wrote a posting on my Simplicity Blog called 'We must not forget’ at this link - http://www.simplicityitk.blogspot.com/

I am with you 100%

Thanks for keeping this important issue in the forefront in the hectic 21st century when we are in danger of forgetting the really important stuff.

Trevor Gay said...

PS - Annie's husband :-)

Steve said...

Annie, Trevor, glad you're both on board with the idea!

Old Cheeser said...

Signed! Erm...I hate to say it, but 3) was probably the main reason for me signing! Although I wholeheartedly applaud the sentiment of an official remembrance day and if people wish to spend the day thinking about those who were lost, that's their choice. On a slightly different yet related note, I definitely feel that as a country we should be entitled to more bank holidays (Gustavo tells me they have about 10 a year in Brazil) so I still think it's justified.

MOTHER OF MANY said...

My eldest daughter lives in Austria and they have so many more holidays than we do, mostly religious holidays but a few more bank holidays during the winter sounds like a good idea to me.

Steve said...

Hi OC, Ally, there's definitely 2 issues here - a proper day to remember all those lives lost in war and the very real need for the UK to have a few more Bank Holidays to bring us more in line with our European cousins. An idea which combines both of those issues can only be a good one in my book!