Think tank!
More like escaped nutters!
Another ploy to take off us again when we have one of the lowest amounts of bank hols.
Bank hols also make a lot of money for the robbing businesses who double the price of hotels, holidays & campsites so why the hell are they bleating.
Yes it's crazy on the roads and not everyone can have the time off but these holidays are important for most families to bond.
We can all find areas where the money leaks away from the UK such as bailing out Ireland or aid abroad. Let the bloody think tank look at that.
What a thoroughly intemperate, inaccurate and unfair rant! Your attitude suggests to me that you have spent your working life as an employee who has never had to worry about balancing the books every year. You've probably never had to worry about taking a couple of weeks off when you're ill, as some employer will continue to pay your wages and of course, because of the politicians, so despised by many members of this forum, you've never had to worry about taking holidays because, by law, you get at least four week off and still get paid.
But first the report. The 'think tank' in question wasn't asked to examine the Irish debt problem, it was asked to look at Bank Holidays and the affect on the economy, so God know's why you throw that in.
The 'robbing businesses' such as camp sites and hotels haven't endorsed this and never will and the report actually said that a significant part of the economy benefits from Bank Holidays, particularly your 'robbing' camp sites and hotels. However, these account for a tiny percentage of British business as those most affected, such as construction, are three times bigger than the leisure industry.
Secondly, no one is talking about giving workers fewer holidays. If the odd Bank Holiday was ever scrapped you would get an extra day added to your normal holiday allotment. Personally, when I was an employee, I would given up many Bank Holidays if I could have had an extra week's holiday. Most Bank Holidays, whilst nice to have, don't enable families to get away for a decent break as, with the weekend, they just have three days.
But what is most offensive is your description of the 'robbing businesses that double their prices". I'll ask you a question, which I do hope you will answer honestly. If you bought a house for say, £100K and by chance the area boomed and ten years later when you decide to sell, similar ones are selling for £250K, and a young couple comes to view it would you think " "A rise of £150K in ten years is ridiculous, I'm going to let this nice couple buy my house for £190K"?
Or would you get the highest price that you can? If you try to get the highest price that the market will bear then you are, by your own definition, a 'robber'. Now that's not my definition, but yours. I don't think that you'd be a 'robber'. I just think that you'd be sensible for getting the best price that you can. If you agree that you'd get the highest price that you can, how does that differentiate you from those 'robbing businessmen'?
Now at the risk of sounding patronising, let me give you a lesson in business. The object of a business is to get the best price that you can. Otherwise, it's just a hobby. The problem is of course that you can never get the price that you'd really like because there's always some other bugger who's desperate for cash flow or thinks that he can work more efficiently and will try to undercut you. It's called competition and is what's driven the capitalist system to constantly provide better products and services, unlike Communism where there is no incentive to make a better product, hence the fact that Russia for instance has no innovative industry whatsoever
The myth about 'robbing businesses' doubling prices is just that, a myth. They don't double prices, they charge the price that they'd like to get every day of the year. What they actually do is discount their prices in the off-season in order to drum up customers at a time when their are few around.
In winter, many camp sites, particularly in Spain and Portugal, charge incredibly low prices. They do this because it keeps the site open with long-term winter residents, it keeps their staff employed and saves them laying off good workers. You of course would expect that they carry on with these low prices at, which they barely make a profit, right through the year, but you of course appear to know nothing of how to run a business.
The purpose of a business is to make money. It's not easy, there is always competition and many fail and lose everything, but of course you never notice those do you? You just see the rich ones who've done well and resent the fact that they are better off then you. Well, if it's so easy and so lucrative, why aren't you doing it? It really is very easy. You can do what I did, take a second mortgage on your house and start with an overdraft also secured against your home and risk losing the lot. You can enjoy the fact that, if you're ill, there's no one to pay your wages and, if you want a holiday, you need to make enough in the other eleven months to pay for it. Nothing to it though, why not have a go?
I apologise in advance for this rant but I'm afraid that, as an honest businessman in an incredibly competitive trade, I found your comments to be obnoxious.
