HL Deb 07 March 1972 vol 329 cc7-8
LORD PARGITER

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

[The Question was as follows:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will arrange for the Feast of Hogmanay to be kept as a national holiday South, as well as North of the Border.]

LORD DRUMALBYN

My Lords, the policy of successive Governments has been that holidays are a matter for negotiation between employers and employees. But my honourable friend the Minister of State for Employment recently undertook to consider suggestions made by the Trades Union Congress about additional public holidays. Strictly speaking Hogmanay—that is, New Year's Eve—is not a holiday in Scotland. New Year's Day and the following day are statutory bank holidays in Scotland.

LORD PARGITER

My Lords, is the noble Lord aware that New Year's Day is a sort of recovery day after the Hogmanay Feast, and is he aware that that would be the purpose of having a New Year's holiday, and is he further aware that in the Western calendar this happens to be the Feast of the Circumcision, and that this combination of events might well make this a holiday? Would he also agree that we might suggest this to the European Community as a counter against some of the customs that they will wish us to follow?

LORD DRUMALBYN

My Lords, I think that New Year's Day is largely a holiday in other countries, and this is undoubtedly one of the days that has been suggested by the Trades Union Congress. I do not know how long the noble Lord's Hogmanay continues into the New Year, but at any rate he can rest assured that the matter is being considered.

LORD HUGHES

My Lords, before the noble Lord goes too far may I point out to him—

SEVERAL NOBLE LORDS

No!

LORD HUGHES

My Lords, may I ask the noble Lord whether he is aware that, in most industries in Scotland, at least, the first two days of the year are holidays, and my noble friend is wrong in thinking of New Year's Day as a day of recovery; it is the second day that is needed to recover.

LORD DRUMALBYN

My Lords, I take note of what the noble Lord has said and I have no doubt it relates in particular to his own city.

LORD HENLEY

My Lords, does the noble Lord know that those of us who live on the Border take all these holidays anyway?

VISCOUNT MONCK

My Lords, would my noble friend be good enough to explain to us, who are only simple and down trodden Sassenachs, from what word or combination of words the word "Hogmanay" was derived?

LORD DRUMALBYN

My Lords, I took the precaution of looking it up and I found the origin of the word is obscure.

LORD SEGAL

My Lords, is the noble Lord aware that among the Chinese the New Year is observed as a three-day holiday, and would he give an assurance that this consideration will not be entirely ruled out?

LORD DRUMALBYN

My Lords. I think one has to take into account other holidays about that time of year as well.