State directed holidays

Great, not content with taking over 40% of everything we earn they now want to tell us how to spend our public holidays

All that needs to be said on this subject can be found at Devil's Kitchen where Filthy Smoker is on fine form:

Look, dick-head, we work some of the longest hours in Europe. We get told what to eat, how much to drink and where we can smoke. We get filmed from the moment we step out the fucking door. Our working lives are ruled by petty bureacrats, money-grabbing politicians, faceless corporations and thick-headed bosses. Life is a veil of fucking tears culminating in infirmity, loneliness and cancer. Do you think that, just for one day, you could leave us alone?

Obnoxio The Clown has some fine comments as well:

You know, I'm sure my eyes must be deceiving me. I could swear that that intent of the above paragraph was to tell me that I was being given permission to celebrate everything I like about the country. How can that be? Do I really need the permission of some halfwitted nonentity called Liam Byrne to celebrate what I like about this country? Tell you what, Liam, the thing I really like about this country is the way there are Immigration ministers swinging from the bloody lamp-posts in Westminster. So I have your permission to celebrate that, do I?

Do read them both, they are well worth the time and effort.