Tuesday 16 January 2007

St George should be cross






The St Andrew's Day Holiday (Scotland) Bill was approved by Parliament on Wednesday November 29, 2006.
It aims to promote St Andrew's Day on November 30 as a national celebration of Scottish identity and culture across the whole of Scotland.
The Bill adds a date - November 30, or the following Monday should November 30 fall on a weekend - to the schedule of bank holidays in Scotland.
It provides the legal framework in which the St Andrew's Day bank holiday could be substituted for an existing local holiday from another date in the year.

The Bill for this Act of the Scottish Parliament received Royal Assent on 15th January 2007.


During House of Commons debates Wednesday, 27 October 2004 Andrew Rosindell asked that leave be given to bring in a Bill to make St. George's Day (23 April) a public holiday in England in place of the May Day public holiday.

The House divided: Ayes 83, Noes 112.

The noes were voting against the change of the Public Holiday from May Day to St George's Day.

To see the votes by party, click HERE

What stands out from this list of voters is the number of non-English MP's voting against this Bill.

Why do Scottish MP's get to vote on St Andrew's day without outside interference, when English MP's do not enjoy the same privilege when voting on St George's Day?

2 comments:

Gareth said...

You ask a very good question.

I wrote to every non-English constituency MP that voted NO in this bill and asked them a similar question.

See here and here

Anonymous said...

A few years ago Tom Watson MP NL proposed a St George's Day debate at Parliament.It was knocked back by a seth efrican blowin sitting in a welsh seat on the grounds there was no St Andrews Patricks or Davids day debate in parliament,
completely ignoring they have there own assemblies to do as they want. Peter Hain should never have been allowed in the country.