No extra bank holiday for 75th VE Day, but the pub will be open longer

We're not getting an extra bank holiday for the 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, but we will get a couple of extra hours in the pub. The UK government has announced a short consultation to extend opening hours from 11pm to 1am for pubs on 8-9 May. They also moved the early May bank holiday (4 May) from Monday to the …

[Dan 55]

Celebrate VE Day with Victory Gin!

Government says it's your duty, citizen.

[steviebuk]

But...

..."Finally, a government decision we can all get behind"

Not for those that don't drink :) but I don't begrudge, enjoy it.

[Forget It]

I'll drink to that

[DontFeedTheTrolls]

"Extending licensing hours will pave the way for commemorative events across the UK, so we can pay tribute to the courage and determination of the millions who fought for our freedom or supported the war effort at home."

Bollocks it will. A few hardened drinkers will get a couple of extra hours in the pub and call in sick the day after. A Public Holiday would have been appropriate. Or are the Government saving the declaring of public holidays so that we can remember Brexit Day in the future?

[Charlie Clark]

You know Boris is just itching, and this time not from anything related to Miss Arcuri, for something that might actually get approval in parliament.

Lock him up!

[iron]

How will extending licensing hours in England & Wales do anything for the UK? Pubs in Scotland are already open longer hours.

[walatam]

I suspect either a lack of thought from the UK gov or the acceptance that Scotland will be independent by then :)

[Annihilator]

Yeah but you can’t buy booze in a shop past 10pm in Scotland, but can buy it 24hrs a day in E&W (minus the Sunday morning malarkey that the UK is actually united on) so swings and roundabouts really.

[Oengus]

Your pubs close? We have a number of pubs (and clubs) that are open 24/7. A few others only close for a couple of hours for cleaning. It wouldn't be the first time I dropped in to a 24/7 pub after a night shift for a couple of drinks before heading home.

BTW May 8 2020 is a Friday those celebrating late into the night would have the whole weekend to recover so are unlikely to call in sick.

[Skier Boris]

It's such a special occasion we're going to re-cycle and existing Bank Holiday rather than have an extra one.

[Jason Bloomberg]

It makes it pretty clear exactly how generous this government intends to be. But I don't think anyone should be, or is, surprised.

Maybe other parties will put in manifestos pledge to do better?

[walatam]

I am pretty sure there will be a claim that not participating in celebrations linked to Europe was one of the things that was voted for back in 2016 as a justification for not having an extra bank holiday. /s

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Bastille Day

Don't the French have a big holiday to celebrate the peasants storming the palaces of the mighty and killing all the entitled inbred nobs that ran the place?

Could we do that ?

(have a holiday not storm westminister and behead a few old Etonians - that would be incitement to something or other)

[Mike Shepherd]

Re: Bastille Day

I was with you until the last paragraph.

[Antron Argaiv]

Re: Bastille Day

Yes, please!

// USAian

[Oengus]

Re: Bastille Day

Don't you have "Guy Fawkes night"? OK, so it isn't a public holiday but it is an excuse to celebrate the attempt to blow up the entitled inbred nobs that ran the place...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Bastille Day

The history books have him as a religious extremist.

[katrinab]

Re: Bastille Day

That’s because history is written by the victors.

[Tom 7]

Re: Bastille Day

It was actually to get rid King of the wrong religion, There was no intention of getting rid of all entitled inbred nobs that ran the place.

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: Bastille Day

"It was actually to get rid King of the wrong religion, There was no intention of getting rid of all entitled inbred nobs that ran the place."

And just to complete the explanation, it's not celebration of the attempt to blow up the HoP, it's a celebration of foiling the attempt and the capture and execution of Guy Fawkes.

[phuzz]

Re: Bastille Day

"It was actually to get rid King of the wrong religion, There was no intention of getting rid of all entitled inbred nobs that ran the place."

They were planning to blow up the king during the state opening of Parliament, which would have potentially got rid of everyone in government (baring any MPs/peers who couldn't be bothered to be there).

Possibly they couldn't find a better opportunity to kill the king, but the choice of Parliament as a target implies they also wanted to get rid of the government as well.

[Primus Secundus Tertius]

Re: Bastille Day

I was stuck in a French town one Bastille Day: everything was closed except the local museum. So there I went.

There was a fascinating section on the German occupation during WW2. Gestapo identity cards, knives, pistols... Then there was the town map: the main square renamed to Adolf Hitler Platz, the main street to Adolf Hitler Strasse.

Later, when I told my German friends, they felt (light-heartedly) there were possibilities in that naming scheme.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Bastille Day

Other things to do in France on VE day?. Commemorate the Sétif massacre perhaps.

[Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse]

Proles!!! Sit down. Shut up.

Be more grateful for generosity of honourable and majestic government of most United of Kingdoms in its allowing for you of two extra hours drinking time on most respectful of occasions.

[J27]

Wow, I didn't realize pubs could only be open to 11pm, that seems pretty restrictive. I live in Canada and here they're been talking about ditching the 2am limit for when alcohol can be served. (They can start at 9am)

[Julz]

It varies, you can ask for different licensing hours if you want to.

[Colemanisor]

Standard UK opening hours are until 11:00 pm but can be extended by requesting a licence extension, e.g. nightclubs

[iron]

No they are not, those are standard opening hours for England & Wales.

Scotland is still the union for now.

[BebopWeBop]

Doesn’t matter that is a responsibility for Holyrood not Westminster.

[Tom 7]

Most of the pubs in town are open till midnight or 1am. My local shuts when I pass out in the bar.

[DasWezel]

I can't help but think that we might be better off using the opportunity to remember what the consequences of letting unscrupulous governments running unchecked have historically included, rather than sitting in the pub getting shitfaced for a couple more hours.

[Anonymous Coward]

You could always be "sitting in the pub getting shitfaced for a couple more hours" and thinking "that we might be better off using the opportunity to remember what the consequences of letting unscrupulous governments running unchecked have historically included"

And remember 'every day is VE Day on the History/Yesterday channel'

[Captain Hogwash]

I'm confused

Didn't the law change in the early 2000s to allow 24 hour booze sales?

[shifty_powers]

Re: I'm confused

No, it changed to allow the possibility of it, with permission still needed from licensing authorities to extend beyond the norm. (And lots of rules and regulations around locations and such like).

[Captain Hogwash]

Re: I'm confused

OIC. My local immediately went to closing at 00:30 hence the confusion. No benefit to me then of this government largesse.

[Anonymous Coward]

Are they going to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the end of WW2?

Maybe have sushi and hibachi joints stay open an extra couple hours?

[Ugotta B. Kiddingme]

Egad!

"extend opening hours from 11pm to 1am for pubs on 8-9 May"

Your pubs normally close at 11pm? On a FRIDAY?!? Wow... I could sort of understand that during the work week but the weekend? Seems hardly enough time for the beer goggles to engage.

[Tom 7]

If you think pubs being open an hour longer is a good thing

you're a bit of a crap drinker then,

[stiine]

Re: If you think pubs being open an hour longer is a good thing

but that only has to be happen 8 times and then you're back to normal -- 24 hour drinking

[Anonymous Coward]

End of WWII in Europe

German forces surrendered 7 May 1945 ...

... but only as far as the Western allies were concerned. The Soviet, and now the Russian point of view is that the war between Germany and USSR continued until 59 minutes before midnight (Berlin local time) on the 8th of May, 1945. The capitulation, the full text of which can be seen at https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/zeitgeschichte/kapitulationserklaerung-das-papier-das-den-krieg-beendete-a-354696.html, was signed in Berlin-Karlshorst earlier on the same evening.

Given the present state of the western-russian relations, I doubt that Russians will be invited to participate in the VE celebrations (although Germans probably would - funny that), so their opininion matters very little.

Interestingly enough, although the capitulation document was in English, German, and Russian, the German version carried no legal power - so strictly speaking, generals von Friedeburg, Keitel, and Stumpff, who signed it on behalf of Germany, could have just as well signed a blank sheet of paper.

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: End of WWII in Europe

"so strictly speaking, generals von Friedeburg, Keitel, and Stumpff, who signed it on behalf of Germany, could have just as well signed a blank sheet of paper."

Considering the level of defeat they had just suffered, yes, they may as well have. The surrender conditions then being filled in afterwards. It would've probably made very little effective difference.

[mark l 2]

With local pubs closing at a rate of a dozen or so every week, I wonder how many pubs outside of city centres (which often can already stay open passed 11pm) will be around to take advantage of a couple of extra hours of opening time?

Having a pub crawl in the town where I grew up, now involves having to get taxis between pubs as they are so few and far between, you have sobered up by the time you walked to the next one.

[J.G.Harston]

Typical of the London metropoliitican elite to be ignorant of elections happening across most of the country on that Thursday, with the count now clashing with the moved bank holiday.