[Bones McCoy]

The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR)

The think thank says that if bank holidays were scrapped, Britain's gross domestic product (GDP) - a measure of the value of goods and services produced by all sectors of the economy - would be £19bn higher every year.

Full article here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17654781" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Commie BBC is leading with this.

They've neglected to mention one massive benefit of bank holidays.
Slow news days where self publicists groups can get cheap publicity.

[Carlos The Badger]

Research published last year by Mercer HR suggested there was a statutory minimum of 14 in Spain, 13 in Portugal, 12 in Greece, 11 in France, and nine in Germany and Ireland.

It found US and Australian workers get 10 public holidays, Canadians nine, Chinese 11 and Japanese 15. However, there are regional variations in many of these countries and employment laws differ as to whether workers should be paid for these holidays.

I wonder if Mercer HR got paid for looking that up on Wikipedia?

[Gourami]

Sky news were reporting that bank holidays directly lead to a diminution of GDP. I think I'd put it the other way round, that working a few more days could raise GDP. That businesses making profits was the be all and end all was taken as given. Yes, I realise that it would help the economy but I do wonder at these people who can't imagine anything more to life than the profit motive. Work is not a means to an end but the end in itself, according to a right leaning national broadcaster.

[hel]

The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR)

The think thank says that if bank holidays were scrapped, Britain's gross domestic product (GDP) - a measure of the value of goods and services produced by all sectors of the economy - would be £19bn higher every year.

Full article here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17654781" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Commie BBC is leading with this.

They've neglected to mention one massive benefit of bank holidays.
Slow news days where self publicists groups can get cheap publicity.

When it's put that way it sounds like a lot, but what is it as a proportion/percentage of GDP? I imagine it can't be that big, otherwise they would have mentioned it... I'm trying to calculate it myself but I'm getting a bit confused by the different types of billions!

[Malcolm Armsteen]

The CEBR have some form.
They 'broke' the news that Brazil has a bigger economy than the UK.
They have several times predicted that Greece and Italy will leave the Euro.
They have predicted a complete meltdown of the European financial status quo.
They have predicted that 2012 will be 'tough for households' (no shit...)


Oh, and Manchester United will win the league.

What scares me is that both Sky News and BBC News were trotting this garbage out completely uncritically this morning.

[satnav]

Why stop at scrapping Bank holidays why not get rid of Sundays as well? If every worker in the country worked 50 extra days a year we would soon be able to compete with India and China on the productivity stakes.

[Bones McCoy]

The CEBR have some form.
They 'broke' the news that Brazil has a bigger economy than the UK.
They have several times predicted that Greece and Italy will leave the Euro.
They have predicted a complete meltdown of the European financial status quo.
They have predicted that 2012 will be 'tough for households' (no shit...)


Oh, and Manchester United will win the league.

What scares me is that both Sky News and BBC News were trotting this garbage out completely uncritically this morning.

What's their prediction on the religious persuasion of the next Pope?

I'd be impressed if they were in the tiny minority in 2007 predicting a coming recession.

[Esqui]

I wonder how much gdp would improve if no-one slept and we worked 24 hours a day.

[new puritan]

Price of everything, value of nothing. It might not have occurred to these clueless wonks, but the reason the economy is shagged isn't that the proles aren't working hard enough.

[spoonman]

It seems to have escaped the CEBR that South Korea itself has bank/public holidays itself totalling 14 days per year. And links the fallacy of working more hours to being more productive (German workers on average work less hours per year than most other EU countries).

Another shite piece puffing up Dickensian images, "...but sur, it's Christmas Day?!"

[Malcolm Armsteen]

This is a Tory stooge organisation softening us up for either a reduction in bank holidays (they want to get rid of May Day because of its Labour connotations) or a reduction/exceptions to the minimum wage, because we can't afford it.

[new puritan]

This is a Tory stooge organisation softening us up for either a reduction in bank holidays (they want to get rid of May Day because of its Labour connotations) or a reduction/exceptions to the minimum wage, because we can't afford it.

They also conducted some distinctly dodgy 'research' into the impact of the 50p tax band last year.

http://liberalconspiracy.org/2011/11/24 ... tax-today/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Big Rob]

There's plenty of people who work bank holidays and not just in the public sector.

Sincerely, large financial corporations caused this mess and now it's the fault of the ordinary worker that the economy is still in a mess?

I am the surprised that the CEBR is not getting a few turds in the the post.

[Big Rob]

http://news.sky.com/home/business/article/16205098" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

As Britain once again teeters on the brink of a second recession, there are warnings that another extra bank holiday for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in June will drag down growth in the second quarter of the year.

Ha....

[Tubby Isaacs]

Imagine if it snows.