People need ‘time to enjoy’ saints’ days, says Plaid Cymru’s Westminster leader
‘We should be celebrating our regional saints and our national saints with vigour and enthusiasm,’ Liz Saville Roberts said.
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”.
David Chadwick, the Liberal Democrats’ Wales spokesman and the MP for Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe, later endorsed calls for a bank holiday.
He told MPs: “Let us move boldly forward, together advocating for St David’s Day to be recognised as a national holiday.”
Labour MP for Cardiff West Alex Barros-Curtis had said the budget for Wales shows “the power of partnership between two governments working together in the interests of the Welsh people”.
He said: “So why, therefore, Plaid Cymru will be joining the Conservatives to vote against this investment at the budget next week is beyond me.”
Ms Saville Roberts intervened to say: “He knows as well as I, in real terms, that this is not an increase, and also it is front-loaded for the Welsh budget.
“We know there is grief coming down the track with budgets in future, so it’s hardly appropriate to be singing the praises of this budget, knowing what’s on its way.”
Mr Barros-Curtis replied: “That is still inexcusable to me why Plaid Cymru would vote against an extra £1.5 billion in the budget next week and join the Tories in doing so, it seems an unfathomable reason for that.”
In her contribution, Llinos Medi, Plaid Cymru MP for Ynys Mon, said: “For decades, we have failed to address the fundamental problems that face Wales.
“We have never had an ambitious strategic economic plan. The case for a new radical and made-in-Wales approach to economic development is clear for all to see.”
Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens described “UK and Welsh governments working together and delivering for the people of Wales on economic growth, on clean energy, on water regulation, on health, and on plans for future rail improvement”.
She told MPs that the Government had secured £80 million of support for the steel community in Port Talbot and supported the Welsh Government with £25 million to secure disused coal tips.
“The past six months have already seen billions of pounds of investment committed and hundreds of jobs created,” Ms Stevens added.
