Bunting Hell

[Etienne]

I think this is probably too big a plus to be in the minor plusses thread. Covid has destroyed the 75th anniversary of VE day celebrations which I can only imagine would have been horrendous. It also means that those people who had booked their weddings 18 months ago on May 4th were actually done a big favour by the decision to suddenly swap a day marking working solidarity for a day marking one of those vanishingly rare days when the British Empire was on the right side of history.

That said a huge proportion of the population still seem unaware that next Friday is a bank holiday. Our surgery is staying open for both bank holidays in May (as are most in England, not sure about the other countries) to try and take workload off hospitals and out of hours and we're having to emphasise to patients that we're open on both Monday and Friday next week.

[Arturo]

That said a huge proportion of the population still seem unaware that next Friday is a bank holiday. Our surgery is staying open for both bank holidays in May (as are most in England, not sure about the other countries) to try and take workload off hospitals and out of hours and we're having to emphasise to patients that we're open on both Monday and Friday next week.

I've come across a fair few people this year, and even someone this week, who had no idea the Friday was a Bank Holiday. Nor did they know about the VE anniversary. It must have been a late switch though because I haven't seen a single calendar or diary yet that acknowledges the switch.

[longeared]

As I mentioned on the snooker thread earlier, the switch was confirmed less than a year ago as World Snooker had put tickets on sale for the final on Monday assuming it was a bank holiday as normal.

Similar thing happened in 1995 for the 50th anniversary by the way, though that was less noticeable as the holiday just switched to Monday 8th May.

[Sporting]

Public holiday here today. The date is immovable.

[Arturo]

Similar thing happened in 1995 for the 50th anniversary by the way, though that was less noticeable as the holiday just switched to Monday 8th May.

I recall that day quite vividly but have no recollection of it being switched, possibly for the reason you've given. It was the first time I personally remember everywhere countrywide stopping for a minute's silence outside of a sporting event or Remembrance Sunday (I was in a pub at the time, on the day a Tim Flowers inspired Blackburn beat Newcastle to edge nearer the title).

On a separate note, three friends of mine share that birthday, all born in the same year (1975).

[Sits]

Public holiday here today.

Marillion earworm, unfortunately.

[Cal Alamein]

Sits, I remember Marillion fairly well, not catching the earworm.

[HORN]

Garden Party.

[Diable Rouge]

https://twitter.com/paulj71/status/1256570000430817280

[DCI Harry Batt]

Someone posted that shit in my local FB group. Arseholes

[pebblethefish]

Although they were probably trying to get you all out into your front gardens at four so they could nip in the back door to nick your stuff. Times are tough for housebreakers - you need to be inventive these days.

[Sean of the Shed]

This was lining up to be a horrendous right wing shitfest full of flag waving, "patriotism" (ie racism) and lots of God Save the Queen from Britain's entire gammon population. I'm absolutely made up that the pandemic has all but destroyed this. Also a plus is this was the last significant war anniversary and it will be 2039 by the time the next one comes around, but sadly the next time we do all this there will be nobody left who actually lived through it to tell us how fucking awful and frightening it was, just all the people who have come after who romanticise it with all their Blitz spirit bullshit and think another war would be a good thing and give those snowflake millennials something to really moan about.
I don't even like the use of the name "Victory in Europe Day". It's a shit name that merely accentuates all the blowhard chest beating "who won the bloody war anyway" British spirit that makes us appear so fucking retarded as a nation in the eyes of the rest of the World. I would call it Peace in Europe Day, which also comes with the handy acronym PIE day, and should be celebrated with your favourite pastry snack.

[sw2borshch]

https://twitter.com/paulj71/status/1256570000430817280

Why do those clowns want people to have their dinner at teatime? Who won the bloody war anyway?

They possibly overestimate how many people have a front garden too.

[slackster]

By jingo! I didn’t know anything about the VE stuff nor the Bank Holiday.

[Satchmo Distel]

It's still hugely intrusive in the sense that you'll need to keep your telly and radio switched off all day to avoid it, and even then you might get noise from neighbours and the unwanted social media intrusion Ton Ton describes. In addition, there will be build-up throughout the week.

The loss of the proper Bank Holiday Monday would infuriate me if I were in a UK office job and not working from home. Would you rather have a Monday off or a Friday?

[sw2borshch]

To be honest, a Friday.

[sw2borshch]

That's not to say the Tories haven't played a shitty trick and that if the snooker/football was on I would want the Monday off. But yeah, Bank Holiday Fridays would be ok.

[Patrick Thistle]

House near me

[MsD]

Thank God I live in Hackney. We're big on rainbows and NHS signs (and clapping and whooping) but I haven't seen any of this crap and bet there won't be, either.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

It's still hugely intrusive in the sense that you'll need to keep your telly and radio switched off all day to avoid it, and even then you might get noise from neighbours and the unwanted social media intrusion Ton Ton describes. In addition, there will be build-up throughout the week.

The loss of the proper Bank Holiday Monday would infuriate me if I were in a UK office job and not working from home. Would you rather have a Monday off or a Friday?

If there has been any build up so far I've missed it, the only thing I've seen is that garden party bullshit from upthread, as it was posted on a family WhatsApp group. The press will try to drum up some excitement on Friday but it seems to be a damp squib. I'm only surprised that the PM didn't time the lockdown relaxation announcement for Friday so they could spin it as some Churchilian "Victory against Covid" day.

[Capybara]

There's a house over the road which is larger than the others round here and it has a flagpole out the front, though I've rarely seen it used in the 25 years I've lived round here. I've just looked out and there's bunting out and a union flag has been raised up the flagpole. It's upside down.

[Patrick Thistle]

You should definitely point that out to them. A true patriot would want to know.

[Fussbudget]

Not VE Day-related (although I suspect they're the right demographic), but there's a small terraced house a few minutes from us which has one of those angled flagpoles attached to the front of the house with both a Union Flag and a St George's Cross flying from it. We went past the other day and they now also have two big US and Israeli flags covering the whole of their upstairs windows.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

I was going to be all curmudgeonly and make pointed comments on people's FB pages whenever "we won the war" gets a mention, noting that the Red Army had far more to do with it than anything that happened on the Western Front, but nah, fuck it. Both my grandfathers fought in in the war, so yeah, of course Britain did its bit. VJ Day, I've felt, gets too often overlooked (and will be this year) but of course we didn't so much "win" that one in the end so much as let the Yanks drop two fucking great bombs on it.

I do think Boris should really give the people what they clearly want with all this flag-waving nostalgia by reintroducing rationing and crippling post-war unemployment. Oh wait, he has.

[Snake Plissken]

A number of houses on our street have flags and bunting out, with signs to come out at 4pm for a socially distanced street party.

No.