AMDANI! LET’S MAKE IT HAPPEN!
Victory in reach for St David’s Day Campaign
LET’S MAKE THE FINAL PUSH!
The London parliament is finally facing up to the realities of being part of the European Union on a number of fronts. This week New Labour MP John Grogan (Selby) asked this question in the House of Commons "Given that we're in one of those periods of the year where it's many weeks before the next bank holiday, given that most European countries have far more bank holidays than we do, given ministers' emphasis on a work-life balance ... isn't it time for ministers to show they've retained their joie de vivre and launch a consultation on the number and nature of our bank holidays?"
Replying, Gerry Sutcliffe MP, Under-Secretary of State for Employment Relations, Competition and Consumers at the Department of Trade and Industry said the Government needed to balance the desire for more holidays with the cost to business of £200 billion a day. Quite where this figure comes from – and what it represents - is unclear, especially as Peter Hain MP (Neath) criticised the National Assembly for Wales when it voted overwhelmingly for a St David’s Day holiday because it had failed to consult business leaders on issues such as the potential cost to the economy.
Within the past three months Sutcliffe’s department had received six requests to make St George's Day (April 23) a bank holiday, one request for a United Nations day of peace and another to recognise a Bengali holiday!
Sutcliffe continued that while he was "attracted" by the idea of extra holidays "You have to work out the balances between the costs and whether you should have extra bank holidays but we will keep it under consideration."
Adam Price, the Plaid Cymru MP for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, called for St David's Day (March 1st) to be declared an official public holiday in Wales. He asked Mr Sutcliffe to meet a Welsh Assembly delegation to discuss the issue further but the minister feared he could be meeting large numbers of delegations if he gave way on the issue.
However, Mr Sutcliffe said that if people want St David's Day to be made an official holiday they should write to him.
So don’t let’s disappoint the Under-Secretary of State for Employment Relations, Competition and Consumers at the Department of Trade and Industry! And let’s make absolutely sure that he gets at least six thousand letters for Dewi Sant as opposed to the six he received for St George!
Contact Gerry Sutcliffe today!
Write to him: Gerry Sutcliffe MP, House of Commons, LONDON, SW1A 0AA
Email him at : sutcliffeg@parliament.uk
Call him on: 020 7219 8335
Fax him on: 020 7219 0000
Or why not by all four to make extra sure they listen to us this time?!
Please find a suggested format for you to cut and paste into letter fax or email below.
Your address here!
Gerry Sutcliffe MP,
House of Commons,
LONDON,
SW1A 0AA
England
August 2004
Dear Minister
I would like to add my voice to the growing campaign for St David’s Day, March 1st, to be declared an official public holiday in Wales. Despite the approval of the majority of people in Wales for this idea, expressed democratically through the National Assembly for Wales, and despite individual pleas from a great number of politicians and prominent figures in Wales, many of them from your own party, we don’t seem to be getting anywhere!
I urge you to do everything in your power to ensure that the necessary legislation is introduced as soon as possible to reflect the collective will of the majority of the people of Wales.
With every good wish,
Yours sincerely,
Your signature!