Letter: The folly of losing the May Day bank holiday in favour of Trafalgar Day

Sir: What a brilliant May Day spring holiday. Fine weather, light evenings, beautiful countryside, bluebells, primroses, violets, trees in their fresh green and birdsong everywhere.

Who is Gillian Shephard to propose to change this holiday to a date in late October? Dark evenings, cold, damp, leaves falling, winter on the way.

Is this indicative of her nature, the way she thinks, or is it yet another example of an insensitive government continuing to grind down the citizens of this country with its dictatorial practice?

Holidays are for ordinary people. Has Mrs Shephard asked them their preference? Does she know? Does she even care? If members of the Government want to indulge their jingoism and xenophobia to celebrate the destruction of the French Fleet at Trafalgar, then by all means have another holiday, but as well as, not in place of, May Day.

Perhaps the main reason for the change is just misguided petty, political prejudice. I wonder what John Major's Citizen's Charter has to say about that.

Yours sincerely,

BERNARD JONES

Sidford,

Devon

4 May