EDITORIAL : THE GUARDIAN, UK

           

 

Public holidays: give us a break

Why not allow counties and cities the right to allocate a locally determined public holiday?

This year England and Wales will have nine bank and public holidays, one more than the usual ration. Four of the nine are concentrated within the next 11 days. Scotland, with its slightly different public holidays, will also use up three of this year's 10 in the same period, while Northern Ireland will have four of its 11. This year is, of course, an unusual one, because the combination of a very late Easter and the extra public holiday to mark the royal wedding have created a wider window of getaway opportunity. Yet 2012 will have an extra holiday too, to mark the Queen's diamond jubilee. The government, moreover, has floated the idea of changing the May Day holiday. All in all, this is a good moment to consider the place of bank and public holidays in the national calendar.

It may, perhaps, be asked whether public holidays are not anachronistic in an era in which so much holiday is privatised, entitlements guaranteed, and in an age in which the majority of people take far more days off than they did in the 1870s, when bank holidays first became established. Should there, indeed, be fewer of them? But the answer will always be that public holidays remain important and life-enhancing occasions. The reasons for maintaining them include cultural tradition, national solidarity, the uneven provision of private entitlements, the needs of specific groups of workers who particularly rely on public holidays, and the underlying truth that there is more to life than work anyway. The original Bank Holidays Act, indeed, was introduced in an attempt to encourage more playing of cricket.

In fact there is a strong case for having more public holidays. England and Wales do not just have fewer public holidays than Scotland and Northern Ireland; provision is more generous in much of the European Union too. France by tradition has 12 public holidays, while even the United States has 10. So an extra public holiday, or even two, in the autumn would not just fill the current bank-holiday-free gap between August and Christmas, and help parents during schools' half-term break, it would also do something to make good the overall deficit.

It is important, too, not to turn public holidays into political footballs. Forget worthy but foolish plans for Britishness days. Resist the temptation to commemorate feats of arms. And leave the May Day holiday alone. It has a deep history worth celebrating – and we need more public holidays, not fewer. In which spirit, why not also give Britain's counties and cities the right to allocate a locally determined public holiday of their own if they choose? Local bank holidays were quite common a generation ago. They deserve a comeback. And we all need a few more breaks. Enjoy the next 11 days.

Gordon Brown and the IMF: An unfair race

David Cameron should make it clear that he supports a proper recruitment procedure, to be independently monitored

Consider the following scenario. A multinational corporation that has a war chest worth hundreds of billions of dollars may be about to have a vacancy at the top. Nearly everyone agrees that it needs a top-to-bottom overhaul, from the key personnel to the way it does business. But rather than having an open competition for the vacancy, a clique of insiders squabble over the top job. Some make it clear that certain names haven't a hope, whatever their qualifications. Other good candidates don't have a heavyweight patron, so don't get a look-in. The result is that leadership of one of the biggest and most important institutions in the world does not go to the best man or woman for the job, but to a compromise candidate.

The above may sound like fiction, but the sad reality is that it is how the boss of the IMF has been selected for most of the past 60 years. Much of the time it goes unremarked – a French socialist or Spanish conservative is levered into the top spot and life goes on as normal. But this week it became big news in Britain, after David Cameron declared Gordon Brown "not the most appropriate person" to run the IMF. Take out the names and the enmity that gave this story its particular piquancy, and the episode illustrates another point: an early-morning interview question sprung on Mr Cameron about the man he spent years battling is simply not the most appropriate way to choose who runs the Fund. It does not reflect the changing nature of the world economy, where power is slowly diffusing from a handful of nations in the west to a much larger group of countries in the south. And it is no help in steering the global economy through one of the most turbulent periods since the second world war.

It took a mere 54 years for the IMF to agree that it should "adopt an open, merit-based and transparent process for the selection" of top management. That decision was made in 2009, following nearly a decade of working groups, position papers and reports. It also followed decades of a gentlemen's agreement between Europe and America that Washington would choose the head of the World Bank, while the continent could select the IMF's leader. During that time, membership of the Fund has gone from 29 countries to 187. Big economies such as China and India have become vastly more prosperous, while the eurozone has lurched into an existential crisis. Nowadays a rich country – Iceland, Ireland, Greece – is as likely to tap up the IMF for a loan as a poor one: the first time since the 70s and Callaghan that that has been the case. Meanwhile, poor and middle-income countries are complaining again that their economies are being knocked off course by policies adopted by the west, as a tidal wave of hot money hits their markets. And as if all that was not enough, much of the Fund's economic orthodoxy has been shaken by the global financial crisis. IMF researchers now concede that poor countries may be helped, not hindered, by turning away foreign speculators. They talk about how a big wealth gap can prevent nations from enjoying sustainable growth. Chinks are opening up in the old dogma.

The job of running the IMF should never have been treated as a bauble to be handed around rich European countries. That always looked ridiculous; amid this crisis it now appears dangerous. The irony is that one of the few people who has consistently pushed for reform of the IMF is none other than Gordon Brown. Ever since he was chancellor, Mr Brown has been an articulate expositor of ideas for a new global financial architecture. The notion that Mr Cameron would allow his former adversary a bully pulpit in Washington to criticise the coalition's economic policies was always a non-starter. But the prime minister should make it clear that he supports a proper recruitment procedure, to be independently monitored. That is no more than one would expect for such a big job at such an important organisation.

In praise of … llamas

Long valued for their fleeces, llamas have also been helping in efforts to save two threatened species of Lake District fish

The llama and its fluffier, smaller relative the alpaca are among the most successful immigrants to the United Kingdom in modern times. They marked their arrival by going to the very top, grazing for Queen Victoria at Windsor. For years a source of high-quality textiles, following Sir Titus Salt's breakthrough in spinning alpaca weft with a cotton warp in Bradford in the late 1830s, the animals have long been valued for their fleeces. Now they have earned a bigger niche in their own right. At dozens of tourism sites, they add to the interest of petting farms (their spitting is largely exaggerated, except at each other) or carry baggage for hikers, an occupation which the llama seems particularly to enjoy. Unlike sheep or cattle, llamas appear interested in human activities. They are drawn to noise and movement, standing, wrote Thornton Wilder in The Bridge of San Louis Rey, with ears curved like question marks, apparently on the brink of joining in a conversation. This month they have shown another aspect of their versatility, and in the process helped an ancient but challenged native species. Climate change has made life uncomfortable for the vendace, one of two curious fish endemic to the English Lake District (the other is the schelley of Helvellyn's Red Tarn). Thousands of young fish from Derwent Water have therefore been moved to Sprinkling Tarn, much higher and colder – on llama-back. Sure-footed, comfy and quick, says the Environment Agency. And greener and cheaper than a jeep.