MP calls for armed forces holiday (From Salisbury Journal)
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MP calls for armed forces holiday
5:27pm Thursday 16th June 2011 in News By Corey Ross
A SOUTH Wiltshire MP has asked Parliament for an official public holiday to pay tribute to the armed forces.
Devizes MP Claire Perry, whose constituency covers the Tidworth area, introduced a Ten Minute Rule Bill in the House of Commons today the Monday after Remembrance Day as a bank holiday.
She told MPs: “Among the five countries spending most on their military it is only Britain and China that do not have a national holiday to commemorate their service personnel – and at least in China soldiers get a half day off.”
Mrs Perry, whose husband is from New Zealand, was inspired to make her proposal because of her husband’s reminiscences of Anzac Day, a national holiday on April 25 to commemorate fallen soldiers from Australia and New Zealand.
A number of other MPs added their names to the Bill, including Salisbury MP John Glen.
The second reading of the Bill will be on October 21.
