People need “the time to enjoy” St David’s Day in Wales and St Piran’s Day in Cornwall, Plaid Cymru’s Westminster leader has said amid calls for bank holidays. In a debate to mark St David’s Day, which takes place on Saturday, Liz Saville-Roberts told the Commons that not having a bank holiday for the event “doesn’t stop us from coming together to celebrate” Wales.
But she said people throughout the UK should celebrate national saints “with vigour and enthusiasm”. Neither St David’s Day on March 1 nor St Piran’s Day on March 5 are bank holidays. St George’s Day, celebrated in England on April 23, is also not a bank holiday.
But people in Northern Ireland and Scotland receive bank holidays to mark patron saints’ feast days – St Patrick’s Day on March 17 and St Andrew’s Day on November 30. Ms Saville-Roberts, who wore a daffodil pinned to her top, said: “It’s a time of course to take pride in our culture, our communities, our language, each a rugged testament to our resilience as a nation.
“We are a nation of creativity and innovation. “We all here know that Wales has the talent, the resources, the potential to be more than brilliant. “But it’s time to be more ambitious, it’s time to up our game. “While we may not yet have a St David’s Day bank holiday, that doesn’t stop us from coming together to celebrate what makes our country so special.”.
Ben Maguire, the Liberal Democrat MP for North Cornwall, intervened in her speech and asked: “Would (Ms Saville-Roberts) support my calls to make St Piran’s Day – the national day of Cornwall – a bank holiday which is taking place on March 5?”.
Ms Saville Roberts, who is the MP for Dwyfor Meirionnydd in North Wales, replied: “Yes, we should be celebrating our regional saints and our national saints with vigour and enthusiasm, and make sure that people get every opportunity and the time to enjoy them.”.
She also called on MPs to “acknowledge the challenges we face” and said the National Theatre Wales company had “shut up shop”, after its closure last December. “Our arts and culture, so integral to our national identity, they are at present hanging in the balance,” Ms Saville-Roberts said, adding that the NHS west of the border had been “chronically mismanaged”.
