Official date Brits want as emergency bank holiday if England win Euros next month
I don't want to get anyone's hopes up, but if England wins Euro 2024 then we should all get a bank holiday shouldn't we?
It's still very early days in the competition as England have only played one game thus far, a relatively drab 1-0 win over Serbia, and have got Denmark this evening (20 June) as their second group game.
However, for some reason England are favourites to win the whole thing and if that happens it's only logical that we should all get a day off to celebrate, or recuperate in some people's cases.
To be honest, the entire UK should also get a bank holiday if one of England or Scotland wins the Euros as well to make it fair on everybody, as even if the celebrations are only going on in one country we should all get time off as an act of solidarity.
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On the other hand, I spent last night watching Scotland draw 1-1 against Switzerland while a Scottish fan sitting next to me complained about Anthony Ralston for the entire game, and if they don't beat Hungary in their final group game they're out so it's not looking great for the Tartan Army's chances.
So it is that most of our hopes for winning the Euros rest with England, and if they do bring it home then people already know exactly when the bank holiday should come.
Some people have already said they've booked 15 July, the day after the final, off work with the expectation that it'll be an 'unofficial public bank holiday'.
Loads of people are booking the time off in anticipation of an England win, but for those who haven't then 15 July would be a chance for everyone to join in on the fun.
There are already warnings being sent out to be careful about missing work the day after an England game at the Euros, and if the Three Lions managed to actually win it there'd be plenty of people in no fit state to go to work the next day.
Calls on the government to introduce an emergency bank holiday are only going to grow greater the further England or Scotland make it into Euro 2024, so maybe they should do the popular thing and tell us that if one of two teams wins it there'll be a UK-wide bank holiday on 15 July.
There's been discussions about this sort of thing before, though it's maybe not the best news for those of us hoping for a day off in the event of a Euro 2024 victory.
Back in 2021 at the last Euros where England reached the final, then prime minister Boris Johnson expressed a bit of interest in it before saying it would be 'tempting fate' to pencil one in.
He also seemed to go cold on the idea as it'd be too short-notice for many places to deal with, which is no fun at all.
When the same suggestion came up again a year later when the Lionesses won the Euros there were renewed calls to have a bank holiday, but the government shut down that kind of talk by saying that there were 'no plans to change the current pattern of public bank holidays'.
People argued that the women's team should have one as they reckoned there'd definitely have been one if the men had won it, but to no avail.
Before the Euro 2024 final there's going to be an election and a man in the running to be prime minister afterwards was one of the supporters for the Lionesses triumph to be topped off with a 'proper day of celebration'.
Sir Keir Starmer is a football fan (Arsenal, unfortunately) even if he doesn't sound like one whenever he talks about the beautiful game, so the best way he could prove it to us is to give everyone a day off if England win Euro 2024.
Joe Harker