英国拟将劳动节挪至十月

英国政府考虑把法定假日“五一劳动节”挪到10月，并更名为“英国节”或“特拉法尔加节”，以促进旅游业。负责旅游事务的部长官员说，新节日设在秋天，不仅能促进旅游业发展，还能让我们所有人专注于庆祝这个国家所取得的伟大成就。据悉，这一设想是即将出台的英国旅游业发展战略一部分，政府将就是否以及如何更改“五一节”展开协商。如果协商通过，也要到2013年才会生效。

英国在1978年由当时执政的工党确定“五一节”为法定假日，人们在这一天举行游园会，唱歌跳舞，庆祝夏天来临。

The British government said Saturday it was considering moving the May Day public holiday to October, in a move that would delight the tourism industry but which unions say is an attack on international labour day.

Many countries across the world, from France to China, have a public holiday on May 1, often to commemorate the fight for more workers' rights.

In Britain, the holiday was introduced in 1978 by a Labour government. But celebrating May Day with traditional dancing and festivities dates back centuries and also marks the coming of summer.

The coalition now plans to consult on scrapping the May holiday and moving it to October, possibly with the new name of "UK Day" or "Trafalgar Day".

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport said moving the day off would better spread the public holidays across the year and be a boost to the tourism industry.

"An autumn bank holiday, possibly to be branded as a new 'UK Day', would not only help the industry, but also give us all a new focus for celebrating the best of what this country does," said Tourism Minister John Penrose.

He added that any change would be subject to consultation. The proposals are to be contained in a forthcoming tourism strategy and the holiday would not be moved until 2013.

But the Trades Union Congress (TUC) said that some Conservative MPs were not keen on May Day because of its links to international labour day.

"A few Tory backwoodsmen have a bee in their bonnet about the May Day bank holiday because of its association with international labour day," said TUC general secretary Brendan Barber.

"In fact, May Day is a traditional British celebration dating back to the fourth century."

Government sources however denied the proposal had any sort of political dimension and said it was solely in support of their tourism strategy.