St George’s Day and St David’s Day Bill

Stephen Phillips Excerpts

Friday 13th May 2011 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Phillips (Sleaford and North Hykeham) (Con)]

I rise to make a short contribution to the debate. I want to make two preliminary points. First, I extend my sincere congratulations to my hon. Friend the Member for Stratford-on-Avon (Nadhim Zahawi) on moving the Second Reading and on being such an advocate of a full debate about whether St George’s day in England and St David’s day in Wales should form bank holidays, as St Patrick’s day in Northern Ireland and St Andrew’s day in Scotland do.

Secondly, I stress—not least because, for perfectly understandable reasons given the constituency that he represents, my hon. Friend focused his comments on St George’s day—that, as the hon. Member for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr (Jonathan Edwards) said, and as I know given my surname and with grandparents and relatives in Troedyrhiw in south Wales, there is great support in Wales for the Bill and for ensuring that there is also a public holiday on St David’s day.

With those preliminary remarks behind me, the only point that I want to address is one that has troubled some hon. Members: whether the Bill, as formulated, is in any way a divisive measure in preventing citizens in the various constituent parts of the United Kingdom from celebrating saints' days that are not public holidays in the constituent part of the UK from which they come. As I understand it, that is not the principle that lies behind the Bill. It would be perfectly acceptable for Englishmen and Englishwomen living in Wales to celebrate St George’s day, or for Welsh people who have the misfortune to live in England to celebrate St David’s day, in just the same way that I am sure many Scots living in other parts of the United Kingdom celebrate St Andrew’s day—and we all know that the Irish celebrate St Patrick’s day wherever they happen to be in the world, and do it very well indeed. That mischief does not exist in the Bill, and hon. Members who have sought to suggest that it does are wrong.

Much more importantly, this is a Bill whose day has come. The time has come for this sort of measure to be properly debated and for the Government to consult on it, because for too long the symbols associated, in particular with St George, have been purloined by the wrong people in this country. It is about time, as any decent and proper Englishman such as the Minister can tell us, that we took those symbols back and began to celebrate what it is to be English, Welsh, Scots or Irish. There is no problem with that. This is a Union of four strong nations, and the Bill would not in any way undermine it.

I look forward to hearing the Minister’s comments and, I hope, to receiving assurances that the Government, even if they will not lend their support to the Second Reading of the Bill, will give it serious consideration in the context of whether there should be further bank holidays in this country. I, for one, look forward to the day when, even if I can celebrate Trafalgar day—although I am not sure what I would do with that day in October—I and all my constituents will have the opportunity to mark the day on which the patron saint of this country is celebrated. For those reasons, I will support my hon. Friend’s Bill, and I hope that others will do the same.