6. Welsh Conservatives Debate: Making Saint David's Day a bank holiday

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:19 pm on 2 March 2022.

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Photo of Jane Dodds Jane Dodds Liberal Democrat 4:19, 2 March 2022

We can have a little competition, I think, between ourselves in the Welsh liberals and Welsh Labour, because bank holidays were actually first introduced in 1871 by Sir John Lubbock, who was a Liberal MP who drafted the Bank Holidays Bill. However, I would pay tribute to the trade unions, who have absolutely embedded in our culture that sense that we need a work-life balance. COVID, as we've all learned, haven't we, has actually made us rethink our lives in terms of what's important to us, and maybe what's not so important to us now, which is about not working our socks off, but having that time with our family and our friends and our communities is actually what's important. As we've heard—and again, Jack has mentioned this—it's really important we remember all of those people who work through bank holidays and through weekends as well. We need to pay tribute to them—our care workers, our shop workers, our factory workers, those working in health. We need to make sure that they are properly supported and compensated as well.

We all remember, those of us who were at school, those eisteddfods, those Dydd Gŵyl Dewis where we would dress up. For me, my hat, when I was about six years old, was actually bigger than me. We all remember those eisteddfods that we would have throughout the day as children, and we would be celebrating Dydd Gŵyl Dewi. That's what we need to think about in terms of us moving forward. We've heard that Wales is the most amazing country. We've got the Welsh language, we've got plygains. Don't forget, in mid and west Wales, we have those celebrations of plygain, which is about singing. We've got sheep. We've got sheep that beat any other country in the world. We've got our culture. We've got sport, we've got so much more. We need to make sure that the world and this country knows that we are proud to be Welsh, and that's why we need a Welsh bank holiday that is about St David's Day. Diolch yn fawr iawn.