Second Liberation holiday bid fails
Friday 26th February 2010, 2:56PM GMT.
The issue has arisen because this year Liberation Day falls on a Sunday
ISLANDERS will miss out on an extra Liberation Day holiday after the States rejected a second attempt to give them a day off.
Because 9 May falls on a Sunday, Islanders are going to go without a public holiday this year after the States rejected proposals for days off on the Monday after and the Friday before.
States Members narrowly rejected plans to have Monday 10 May off several weeks ago. Yesterday they rejected Deputy Montfort Tadier’s alternative of a day off on the Friday before by 30 votes to ten.
But the saga is not over, because Deputy Tadier has tabled a further proposal to make 9 May a public holiday even though it falls on a Sunday.
Read the full story in the Jersey Evening Post. Click here for subscription details. Individual editions are also available online.
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Good.
Liberation Day was, is, and always will be 9 May.
Nothing else.
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Then it is only fair that if December 25th, Christmas Day, falls on a Sunday there should be no day off in compensation. How could any other logic apply?
What is sauce for the goose should be sauce for the cigarettes and chocolate bars.
Especially, Beckford, as Liberation Day is always 9th May, just like Christmas Day is always 25th December. Or are you bold enough to argue against the yuletide days off in lieu when they occur? If so you might be better off suffering in silence as you are likely to be an isolated case!
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No Monday off, no Friday off, so now Deputy Tadier is attempting to make May 9th a public holiday? If that fails will he try and get Thursday off instead?
R B Bourgourd, whilst your point about Christmas is well made i think you are missing the point this whole debate.
Christmas day is taken off the celebrate the birth of Christ, however, from everything i have seen and read the only reason people are complaining about Liberation day is because they do not get another day off. No body (well at least the majority anyway) care about Liberation day, all they want is an excuse not to go to work!
There would be the exact same uproar if 27th July was suddenly announced as a bank holiday and then cancelled a few years later because it then fell on a Sunday.
While it would be nice to celebrate Liberation Day no one does it any more, 80% of the population can’t even remember it or were not alive to witness it.
So stop a) being pedantic about having a day in lieu over Christmas and b) grow up and stop trying to get something for nothing.
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“There would be the exact same uproar if 27th July was suddenly announced as a bank holiday and then cancelled a few years later because it then fell on a Sunday.”
Exactly so. Where’s the argument?
The principle is exactly the same, Rob, and we wouldn’t need to be pedantic if pedantry wasn’t sometimes the only way to get through.
Were you, or any of your aquaintances, around to remember or witness the first Christmas? I think I prefer pedantry to irrelevance.
I will, hopefully, never grow up and I have no personal pecuniary interest in this matter as I have had every day of the year off work for years.
During my working life I was unable ever to visit Jersey at Liberation time but always made sure that I did the bare minimum on May the 9th. Such was my depth of feeling for my home Island of Jersey!
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Liberation day is not and never has been a standing Bank holiday but because it is such an important celebration the States have always agreed to give an ADDITIONAL day off when this has fallen on a normal working day.
If those people who still have jobs consider themselves so over worked that they want an additional day off then be honest and campaign for a new official day off but don’t cheapen our liberation celebrations by incorporating it into your arguments.
For Deputy Tadier to continue his campaign after the states have debated and voted either indicates how little respect he has for democracy or how desperate he it for votes that he will sell his integrity to get re-elected. I am surprised he has nor demanded a week off for liberation so that it does not matter on what day it falls.
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Rob if you are happy to be denied a day off more fool you.
A day in lieu is not getting something for nothing it is what people are entitled to. If you don’t believe this then why do all the other flexible bank holidays entitle you to a day in lieu?
Try taking an extra day’s holiday off at your place of work and see what happens. If its good for the goose its good for the gander as far as I am concerned.
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@ R B Bougourd #2
“…Especially, Beckford, as Liberation Day is always 9th May, just like Christmas Day is always 25th December…”
The difference being that Liberation Day was actually on the 9th and thus remembered on that day; Christmas Day is on the 25th of December by default as it was a convenient day to settle on, but does not represent the actual day of anything.
“…Or are you bold enough to argue against the yuletide days off in lieu when they occur?…”
I’m that bold!
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Thanks for that most significant, but irrelevant, correction, JL.
The argument, however, is not about whether Christ was really born on December 25th, or indeed at all. What the two celebrations have in common is that they are both on fixed dates and honoured in Jersey. Hence my suggestion that they should should enjoy the same rule with regard to days in lieu. Not too much to ask, really.
While I am at it, I should make it clear to Rob
that I am not after something for nothing, even on behalf of others. I have not entered the debate about the rights and wrongs of days off in lieu. I am merely asking for consistency of approach.
In case anyone misunderstood my comments about celebrating Liberation Day whilst working in England, I of course meant that I spent the day doing the minimum of work rather than meaning the minimum of homage to Jersey. I also made sure that I always listened, on Radio 3, to Berlioz’s arrangement of La Marseillaise on the way in to work on the 14th of July each year.
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Boring!
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