´óÏó´«Ã½

There you go again, in your 'drama queen' way, attempting to stir trouble where there need be none.
Here are the current UK public holiday days:

In Scotland St Andrew's Day is already a public holiday.
Northern Ireland, interestingly, has both St Partick's Day and Orangeman's Day are public holidays.
In Wales St David's Day will soon be a public holiday as the Welsh Assembly exercises its newly acquired powers.
It is entirely fitting and natural that the fourth nation of mainland Britain - The Celtic Nation And Duchy Of Cornwall - should have its own St Piran 'Saint's Day' public holiday, St Piran and the St Piran flag now being established as the most widely recognised unifying iconographic emblems of The Celtic Nation And Duchy Of Cornwall alongside the national bird - the chough.
Let the English have St George's day as a public holiday in England if they wish.
It is entirely consistent with modern less anglo-centric-imperialist thinking for Cornwall, the fourth nation of the mainland Britain which is NEXT to England like Scotland and Wales, to have St Piran's day as a public holiday.
You wrote: 'I have no idea what the impact of a St Piran's Day holiday might have on Cornwall's economy - but I imagine that to be closed for business, when the rest of the UK is open, won't help the bottom line'.
How about trying the converse:
'I have no idea what the impact of a St Piran's Day holiday might have on Cornwall's economy - but I imagine that to be open for business, when the rest of the UK is open, might help the bottom line'.
Of course public holidays should be established around social, cultural, territorial and historical meaning and myth making and the social identity, understanding and cohesion that arise from a proper sense of place - not money or how to make more or avoid making less. After all, they are about having a holiday from all that. Don't you think?

Correction. In the absence of a post post amendment facility the quote from above is amended below as intended to be written:
'You wrote: 'I have no idea what the impact of a St Piran's Day holiday might have on Cornwall's economy - but I imagine that to be closed for business, when the rest of the UK is open, won't help the bottom line'.
How about trying the converse:
'I have no idea what the impact of a St Piran's Day holiday might have on Cornwall's economy - but I imagine that to be open for business, when over in England is CLOSED, might help the bottom line'. '

The resurrection of Trafalgar Day as a replacement for May Day is totally inappropriate and a cynical Tory way to rid Britain of a day for workers.
A St George's Day holiday would pander to those "patriots" of the extreme right. Just as St Piran's day has become a focus for nationalist extremists in Cornwall, the same would occur throughout the rest of England if St George's day became a public holiday.

Rename "Good Friday" as "National Saints Day", and let all who want it take it off.

It's such a piddling unimportant thing in any case.

Slimslad. You're right about the politically motivated Tory approach to wiping out May Day - the international day of worker celebration and respite.
However, you really are 'way off base' when you try to connect Cornwall's national 'saint' with 'nationalist extremists'. The people of Scotland and Wales and Ireland who enjoy the sense of identity and cultural celebration that surrounds and bursts forth on their 'saint's day' are hardly 'nationalist extremists'. The same is true of the people of Cornwall who are equally entitled to celebrate their national 'saint's day' and to mark that day with a holiday. The country of mainland Britain that appears to have the biggest problem with 'nationalist extremists' hijacking the national 'saint's day' for political purposes appears to be the fourth one - England.

Dave the rave - a UK wide public holiday costs around £2-3Bn. Hardly a 'piddling unimportant thing'. It's therefore important that such days reflect important cultural and national days for the individual and distinctive national parts of the UK as well as for the UK as a whole.

If we were to celebrate the important cultural and national day for the individual and distinctive national part of the UK known as Cornwall, an idle fantasy invented out of a nothing by some Victorian romantics , which is now known as St Piran's day, which was originally an day off for miners alone, then we wouldn't spend a penny on it, as mining is no more in Cornwall. Alas.

But if the Celtic fantasists want to pin their colours on such thin cloth, then maybe they should do it alone.

An apposite quote from Mr Smith's initial blog above - 'St George incidentally was born in Syria, the son of a Roman soldier and Palestinian mother. The bit about the dragon was completely made up'.
Dave the rave -you appear to have a particularly, peculiarly and rather strangely obsessively negative attitude towards the Cornish nation.
National saints and cultural emblems generally ARE founded on human myth making, imagination and other cultural references - as you can see from Mr Smith's summary of the story of England's St George. However, they do form part of the cultural glue that binds communities together. Cornwall's now established and generally agreed national saint, St Piran, should be cherished and respected and a Cornish national public holiday made official - just like Scotland has for St Andrew and Wales will shortly for St David.

St Andrews Day is not a full public holiday in Scotland. It is a voluntary public holiday. The suggestion in Wales is that the May Day Holiday be "replaced" by St. David's Day.Perhaps St Piran, (patron saint of tinners), may be spinning in his grave at idea of replacing a worker's celebration with a day in his own name?