YOU have to give credit where it is due, so three loud cheers for Deputy Montfort Tadier.

His dogged persistence in trying and trying again is not unusual for a Member of a parliament that likes to revisit its business and has made an art of going over old ground.

The Holiday Club that masquerades as a government might have twice rejected giving us mere mortals a proper day off to celebrate our forebears’ liberation from enemy occupation, but he isn’t giving up.

Showing the bulldog spirit that united the British people in 1940 in the resolve never to capitulate, even in the face of overwhelming odds, he is pressing on with his worthy endeavour to give workers a day off in lieu of Liberation Day falling on a Sunday.

I was convinced that he would prick a few consciences last week and persuade that mean bunch to make 7 May a public holiday, as they had previously vetoed a day off on the 10th. After all, Deputy Monty’s projet was moved with the opposition of the Chuckle Brothers – a usual sign that those who make up the numbers in the Laughter Factory would back it to a Member.

Showing the same gritty determination my Jack Russells do when their jaws clamp on something and they refuse to let go, the Deputy has regrouped and is charging forward to make Liberation Day a public holiday – which is what the States should have done in 1946.

Just in case Monty fails in his latest full-frontal attack, Deputy Roy Le Hérissier is mounting a flanking action, calling on his peers to debate making it automatic that when Liberation Day falls at the weekend, the following Monday becomes a holiday.
While you’re at it, Roy, could you also include Boxing Day to avoid the farcical situation of every five years or so when the Laughter Factory – in its customary turgid fashion – decides the fate of the Feast of St Stephen.

Just what is Members’ problem with bank and public holidays? Or have they been got at by the multi-national businesses and global chain stores that dominate the Island scene from their head office in some distant land, and who don’t care who was liberated from whom and when.

Just keep the organ grinding at all costs and hang a day off for the monkeys!
Hindsight is a fine thing, but all our beloved politicians had to do was think back to the 50th anniversary of the Liberation.

In May 1995 the British government of the day was one that respected the past and the sacrifice of those who fought to liberate not just Europe, but also North Africa and the Far East. They decided everyone would have a jolly party to rival the celebration in 1945, and a good time was exactly what the millions who packed London’s streets had over a long weekend as the 8th fell on a Monday.

The spectacle of the Queen, her mother and Princess Margaret standing on the balcony of Buckingham Palace cheered by a sea of British humanity as the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight flew the salute over the Mall will never be witnessed on such a scale ever again.

So this happened: VE Day (8 May) was made a public holiday by moving the May Bank Holiday from its usual slot in the calendar to a week later.

How simple it would have been with a year’s foresight for the States to simply decree that either the May or Whitsun bank holidays be moved to the 10th. As Alexander Meercat so annoyingly keeps saying: ‘Simples!’

We Brits do have a tendency to go on about the war – and why not? It was our national resolve and the Americans’ willingness to back us that liberated Europe and defeated Nazism. If the UK had fallen in 1940, who knows what life would like in a world governed by the twisted ideology of Hitler’s National Socialism.

Whether the business world likes it or not, the UK will one day adopt another Bank Holiday. Moves are already afoot, and once a date is agreed no doubt the Laughter Factory will have to decide if the Island follows suit.

Not that we have to automatically fall in line; why not make the Battle of Flowers an official holiday instead of the half-day it is for many workers? That is a subject for debate when the time comes.

Nevertheless, before that happens the States should once and for all give Liberation Day the recognition it deserves. As has been said over and over again in recent weeks by beloved politicians and Islanders alike, Liberation Day is 9 May, not a day either side.

Yet there is no justifiable reason why there can’t be day off in lieu when it falls on the weekend. It will not devalue the occasion, but will enhance it by sending out a clear message that 9 May is as sacrosanct as Independence Day to Americans and Bastille Day to the French – both of which get a day off in lieu when their national days fall over a weekend.

When I was growing up, Liberation Day was one the most boring days of the calendar. It was a day off school but there was nothing to do and no official celebrations. Once I could legally drink alcohol in a pub, the best thing was the free drink and the generosity of old Jerseymen who propped up the bars the Island over offering to buy everyone a drink to celebrate the Liberation.

Then came the 50th anniversary, a Royal visit and a community project tapestry and suddenly it’s the most cherished day of the year.

No wonder nobody knows whether it’s business as usual or if money should change hands or not across shop counters, let alone whether freedom, democracy and the right to speak one’s mind without the fear of being locked up warrants an extra day off when 9 May falls on a Saturday and Sunday.

Talk about mixed messages. And no body does mixed messages better than the States of Jersey.