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Daily Mail criticises plans for St David’s day bank holidays in Wales

17 Jan 2022 3 minute read
Picture by the National Assembly (CC BY 2.0)

The Daily Mail has criticised plans for a St David’s Day bank holiday in Wales, claiming that taxpayers would be “coughing up” so that “Welsh nationalists” can have “an extra day off”.

The newspaper focused on a Gwynedd Council meeting tomorrow in which they will discuss making St. David’s Day a national holiday for staff.

The proposal would cost £200,000 due to the need to employ part-time staff to keep the council running on March the 1st.

But the Daily Mail took aim at the move, saying: “Taxpayers face coughing up £200,000 for a council staff to get a day off for the Welsh patron saint – after the government refused the extra holiday.

“Welsh nationalists want to mark St David’s Day on March 1 with the special day off work on top of bank holidays. But Boris Johnson’s Government rejected the request because too many people commute across the Wales and English border to work.”

The proposal before Gwynedd Council tomorrow also condemns the “hugely disappointing” response of the UK Government to the council’s suggestion of allowing the Welsh Government to designate bank holidays last year.

In December the UK Government rejected calls for a St David’s Day Bank Holiday after claiming too many people commute across the Welsh and English border to make the idea feasible.

The item before Gwynedd Council next week suggests that “St David’s Day 2022 is designated as an additional holiday day for Council staff working on the terms of employment of local government employees, for celebrating our patron saint’s day to be funded in accordance with paragraph 2.10 of the report b”.

It also suggests that the council “authorize officers to investigate possible options to make such an arrangement permanent and to that end further discussions with the recognized trade unions and continue to lobby for Westminster Government support for devolution to the Welsh Government empowered them to establish bank holidays for Wales”.

The report notes that it “would cost around £200,000 every year to the Council (around £100,000 to execute the last option which is half a day of holiday and redesignating the other half day of holidays which are currently allowed)”.

“These costs are mainly because of the need to employ part-time staff to ensure that the service continues in the absence of full-time staff.”

‘Integration’

In October of last year, Gwynedd Council send a letter to ministers calling for an end to the “embarrassing” anomaly of the Scottish and Northern Irish Governments being able to designate their national days while no such powers are currently devolved to Cardiff Bay.

But in a letter Paul Scully MP, the Minster for Small Business, has poured cold water on any additional Bank Holiday for Wales.

Writing in response to the council’s request, Mr Scully noted, “While we appreciate that the people of Wales want to celebrate their patron saint, more people work across the English/Welsh border than across the English/Scottish border.

“This closer degree of integration could cause greater business disruption. If we had separate bank holidays in England and Wales, the impact on both employees and businesses is difficult to predict.”

In the proposal before Gwynedd Council next week, this response is described as “hugely disappointing”.

“It is obvious that the current government at Westminster has no intention of devolving this right and so it will not be possible for the Welsh Government to respond to the council’s demand for now,” they said.


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GW Atkinson
GW Atkinson
2 years ago

None of their business.

Wrexhamian
Wrexhamian
2 years ago
Reply to  GW Atkinson

Then they are unlikely to be working for Cyngor Gwynedd.

Brechfa Smythe _ Rhydderch
Brechfa Smythe _ Rhydderch
2 years ago
Reply to  Wrexhamian

No likely working in the public sector. Often unaffected by the reality of life
Especially the crachach.

Paul
Paul
2 years ago

The ‘Never Welsh, Never Wales’, English supremacist set love pretty much anything that prevents anything Welsh going on in Wales. They make up any excuse. They genuinely could not care less. The more insulting the better is their motto. Take this one as an example … ‘inconvenient to England even though it happens all over the world’ and they say it with a straight face.

L Edwards
L Edwards
2 years ago
Reply to  GW Atkinson

The Mail was reported late last year to be the most bought newspaper in Wales. I expect that will get some downticks too even though it’s a factual statement and personally I wish it were not so. But I don’t go in for “I don’t like it so it can’t be true”

Hubris
Hubris
2 years ago
Reply to  L Edwards

Unfortunately I can testify to that L Edwards as I once worked in a supermarket and sorted out the end of day returns for all newspapers. By quite some distance, the Daily Mail was the most popular paper with the Sun second. It gives me no satisfaction in saying so but it is true and aligned with the fact that people also watch Sky then you can understand why Wales voted for Brexit. There is a massive democratic deficit in Wales which should be addressed but how to do so is another thing.

Wrexhamian
Wrexhamian
2 years ago
Reply to  Hubris

Now only 18%, and down from the previous year. Apparently, one reason for the decline in Daily Mail readership is that 90% of Welsh people look primarily for news about their own country — far more than is the case in Scotland, England, or Northern Ireland. In contrast to the Mail, Welsh radio listener-numbers in Welsh or English have trebbled in the last year. Newspaper readership in Wales in general has fallen by 9% in the same period. The sun readership has fallen by a third, S4C has gone up by the same amount. BBC Wales and ITV Wales, which… Read more »

Rob
Rob
2 years ago
Reply to  GW Atkinson

The Senedd (or Assembly at it was at the time) voted unanimously in the early 2000s but was rejected by the Blair administration. If they are against individual countries in the UK setting their own Bank Holidays then they shouldn’t have devolved the competence to Scotland or Northern Ireland. Wales is not a second class nation. The Daily Mail are just stirring up hatred and pandering to hardline Britnats. And cross border concerns that is not an excuse. Americans living in Detroit, Michigan who have to commute everyday to Ontario will probably have to work on the fourth of July.… Read more »

CapM
CapM
2 years ago
Reply to  Rob

“Saying that the Welsh can’t have St Davids Day off because its an inconvenience to people who live on the other side of the border does nothing except fan the flames of anti-English sentiment and xenophobia.”

Surely preventing us having Dydd Gwyl Dewi as a public holiday is demonstrating and cementing England’s anti-Welsh sentiment and xenophobia towards us.

Stephen Owen
Stephen Owen
2 years ago
Reply to  GW Atkinson

Yes indeed, nothing to do with the Daily Mail

Keith Gogarth
Keith Gogarth
2 years ago

Unilateral action should be taken. FT

Richard
Richard
2 years ago

I’m sure the Mail can count on the support of the Tory group on Gwynedd Council who I’m sure will represent their opinions…..

…..opps

There aren’t any ! 🤔

WilliamsG
WilliamsG
2 years ago

Nothing better to write about than something that’s none of their business

Grayham Jones
2 years ago

We in wales have got to stop reading English newspapers and stop watching English news on the English TVs start reading welsh newspaper and watching the welsh new that’s what I do every day

Ed Jones
Ed Jones
2 years ago

Fair point. No one in Wales pays any tax, we never have, whoops, we’ve been rumbled! All we were doing was trying to be like the non-dom tax dodging owners of the Daily Mail…

Aliette Averty
Aliette Averty
2 years ago

En France aussi nous avons beaucoup de travailleurs frontaliers (Belgique, Allemagne, Italie Espagne Monaco et nous fêtons quand même le 14 juillet

Richard
Richard
2 years ago
Reply to  Aliette Averty

Tre bien mon ami .

Gareth Wyn Jones
Gareth Wyn Jones
2 years ago

This from a BritNat fascist rag

Twm Teth
2 years ago

£200.000 to celebrate OUR NATIONAL DAY let’s get the draig out in every town centre and village square. I wonder how much we taxpayers contribute towards the the payment of secondary utility bills of the westminster pig trough snufflers? I bet it all adds up to be in excess of 200.000

Julie Jones
Julie Jones
2 years ago

I “cough up” whenever I hear the title Daily Mail.

Cath Hill
Cath Hill
2 years ago

I hate that they call us “nationalists”, I won’t be slurred by a newspaper that historically supported Hitler. I want a Free Cymru and I want a St David’s Day Bank Holiday, I love the land I live on, I adore its mountains, its valleys, I love its rivers and lakes, its animals and varied peoples, but I am not a “nationalist” ..that kind of thing is for fascists. I’m into The Nation Of Wales. Nationalism is ALWAYS exclusionary, always (just ask YesCymru), the only people I don’t want in Cymru are the millionaires and the billionaires and the “Management… Read more »

Kerry Davies
Kerry Davies
2 years ago

Of course we Welsh aren’t taxpayers so have no say in anything.
Can I have 56 years’ rebate now?

Steve Duggan
Steve Duggan
2 years ago

Don’t you just love the DM the paper that supported Hitler. There’s more chance of me jumping off a cliff than reading this rag.

Wrexhamian
Wrexhamian
2 years ago

“Welsh Nationalist” has become a meaningless set of hatewords used by the BritNat right wing to describe any celebration of Welsh culture that doesn’t sit easily with their anglocentrism.

Brechfa Smythe _ Rhydderch
Brechfa Smythe _ Rhydderch
2 years ago
Reply to  Wrexhamian

Twll tyn pop person yn meddwl oherwydd.

Wrexhamian
Wrexhamian
2 years ago

…pob perswn…

“meddwl oherwydd”?

Richard
Richard
2 years ago

Google translate let down ?

Brechfa Smythe _ Rhydderch
Brechfa Smythe _ Rhydderch
2 years ago
Reply to  Richard

Dim google ond Cymraeg cerrig calch a gwyn coach.

R W
R W
2 years ago

Meaningless twaddle courtesy of Google Translate!! 😂😂😂😂

Brechfa Smythe _ Rhydderch
Brechfa Smythe _ Rhydderch
2 years ago
Reply to  R W

Wncomunco is not in google translate neither is Edward y March or how about dwr drewllud. Pure working class Welsh nothing posh. Are you to too posh for wncomunco

Wrexhamian
Wrexhamian
2 years ago

The Welsh don’t, as a rule, have pretentions to be posh.

Brechfa Smythe _ Rhydderch
Brechfa Smythe _ Rhydderch
2 years ago
Reply to  Wrexhamian

Crachach there is posh for you. Do you work at the BBC

Glyn Jones
Glyn Jones
2 years ago

Ond maent yn hapus mae’n siŵr gweld trethdalwyr Cymru yn talu am bedwar diwrnod o ddathliadau ar gyfer jiwbilî Leusa.

Ieuan Evans
Ieuan Evans
2 years ago

Why doesn’t Paul Scully and his ilk just #### off and leave US to decide.

Rob
Rob
2 years ago

Isn’t it the policy of UKIP, Brexit Party etc to have Bank Holidays for St Davids Day, St Georges Day and St Andrews Day in Wales, Scotland, and England respectively?
Are the Daily Mail seriously suggesting that everyone who
celebrates St Davids Day and supports the idea of a it being a Bank Holiday are all nationalists?

If there was a British National Holiday, much would that cost the taxpayers I wonder?

Hubris
Hubris
2 years ago
Reply to  Rob

‘Are the Daily Mail seriously suggesting that everyone who
celebrates St Davids Day and supports the idea of a it being a Bank Holiday are all nationalists?’

Apparently so. Only if you’re white, middle class or upwards and English will you ever be of any concern to the Daily Mail. I find the people in Wales who buy it a most peculiar and amusing breed what with their Tweed perfume and faded Harrods bags for life. It amuses me even more that they live on the same streets with those people they consider beneath them.

Richard
Richard
2 years ago
Reply to  Hubris

Best try another translator rather than Google

R W
R W
2 years ago
Reply to  Hubris

You say “because it is makes no sense in English”? Your English clearly isn’t that good either. 😂😂😂😂

Quornby
Quornby
2 years ago
Reply to  Rob

We won’t be told the cost of the jubilee.

Disco
Disco
2 years ago

So Scotland have different bank Holidays and there no disruption, but it’s IMPOSSIBLE for Wales? Ridiculous.

Richy
Richy
2 years ago

G

Carol Loughlin
Carol Loughlin
2 years ago

No doubt the Mail will also be reporting on the cost to taxpayers of the additional royalist bank holiday in June.

Richy
Richy
2 years ago

There is an online Westminster petition for st davids day to become a bank holiday, it’s up to 7,500 signatures, it needs 10,000 for a review. Everyone has a duty to sign it and forward it on to as many people as they can, so we can force change.

Mr Williams
Mr Williams
2 years ago

I wonder if the Daily Mail also condemns plans to have an extra holiday for the Queen’s jubilee so that British nationalists can have an extra day off?

Or as I suspect, is it just another cheap attack on the Welsh?

Racist, anti Welsh paper!

I.Humphrys
I.Humphrys
2 years ago
Reply to  Mr Williams

Don’t think we are alone, folks, as theh hate most of Europe.

Brechfa Smythe _ Rhydderch
Brechfa Smythe _ Rhydderch
2 years ago
Reply to  Mr Williams

Yes then why is it the largest circulation paper in Wales admitedly that is a guess but then it could be the Sun I would like to know the truth. This publication on the other hand pushes a single political message and is politically financed. Panda.

Brechfa Smythe _ Rhydderch
Brechfa Smythe _ Rhydderch
2 years ago

Prafda

Wrexhamian
Wrexhamian
2 years ago

Circulation down to 18% and falling.

wales for all
wales for all
2 years ago

Without going into the rights or wrongs of having a Bank holiday for St Davids Day- i personally think we should actually. I think that £200k spent by Gwynedd CC basically to make a political point is not something i would support as that money could be used to support services for the people of Gwynedd who actually pay it. If i was a Gwynedd Council tax payer i would not be happy.

Quornby
Quornby
2 years ago
Reply to  wales for all

I am….. and I’d rather pay for this than another racehorse for the Queen.

wales for all
wales for all
2 years ago
Reply to  Quornby

good for you!!

R W
R W
2 years ago
Reply to  wales for all

You believe it should be a Bank Holiday but you are against Gwynedd Council making this move because it will cost money? Don’t you realise that there are extra costs involved with keeping essential services going every time there is a Bank Holiday as well? Would you want all Bank Holidays to be abolished to avoid these extra costs in that case!!??

wales for all
wales for all
2 years ago
Reply to  R W

That is a very fair point you make- maybe all bank holidays need to be scrapped and extra holiday entitlement given to people to compensate.

Rhosddu
Rhosddu
2 years ago
Reply to  wales for all

A better solution would be to transfer one existing bank holiday in Wales to 1st March. A tenner says Westminster wouldn’t allow even this. An even better solution would be for the Senedd to declare 1st March a national holiday; then it ceases to be any of Westminster’s business.

Quornby
Quornby
2 years ago

Just think of all that royal jamboree disruption coming up….. Funny the cost to the taxpayer has received no mention.

Mark
Mark
2 years ago

It’s not just the DM & westminster that is anti Wales, if you listen to any political or current affairs output, TV, radio, podcast or youtube, nobody mentions Wales unless the subject matter is Wales, in general conversation people talk of England, UK, Scotland and the north of Ireland, Wales isn’t even on their radar. It’s as though we don’t exist already or are so insignificant we don’t matter.

Mick Tems
Mick Tems
2 years ago

I never subscribe to the Daily Heil – it’s just a far-right lie factory, and it makes pretty awful toilet rolls.

R W
R W
2 years ago

Just like those vile Tory politicians, the DM thinks that it is vital that the English Establishment keeps the uppity Welsh in their place at all times.

Eifion
Eifion
2 years ago

There’s an easy answer to this, to stop the disruption feared by the English nationalists in regards to people crossing the border being confused. We’ll allow the English to also celebrate St David’s day with us and they can also have a bank holiday.

Dim problem
Dim problem
2 years ago

Weird of the Mail to complain about this. After all, they’re a nasty English Nationalist paper – why aren’t they arguing for St George’s Day to be an English Bank Holiday?

Personally I think St David’s, St Andrew’s, St George’s and St Patrick’s Days should be Bank Holidays across the whole of the UK.

Stephen Owen
Stephen Owen
2 years ago

What about all the extra bank holidays this year because of something to do with the Queen of England?

Stephen Owen
Stephen Owen
2 years ago

English nationalists are imposing extra bank holidays because of something to do with the Queen of England this year, I wonder how much that will cost

I.Humphrys
I.Humphrys
2 years ago

Drop the dead Johnson.

Y Cymro
Y Cymro
2 years ago

The Daily Fail has no damn right to criticise the idea of Wales , in this case Gwynedd, having a day off to celebrate St’ David’s Day. It’s their money, so if I were them I’d keep their big mouths shut. This is the very same toilet paper rag mag who championed the idea of a national day off to celebrate Brexit. Clowns! Their hypocrisy stinks as much as their Mickey Mouse journalism. I’ve argued similar with other BritNats regarding cost. Anyone with an ounce of grey matter, Daily Fail excluded, would know that Wales has eight bank holidays a… Read more »

Last edited 2 years ago by Y Cymro

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