May is cancelled 

Casting my eye sagely across the days ahead in May, one thing strikes me (pun intended). That is, well, we’re all getting rather a lot of time off next month? 

Let’s start with the bank holidays.  

I’ve always found it interesting how few bank holidays we have compared to some other countries. I lived in Argentina some years ago where they have around 29 “feriados” or other non-working days in a year. This is more than three times the number we typically have in the UK. 

The Argentines celebrate every cause under the sun from Paso a la Inmortalidad del Gral. Manuel Belgrano, or Día de la Bandera (Day of passing into immortality of General Manuel Belgrano or ‘Flag Day’) on 20 June, to Día de la Soberanía Nacional (Day of National Sovereignty) on 20 November. 

I was explained to by one Argentine friend though that the reason they have so many public holidays is (A) to help the tourist industry and (B) because companies don’t give out a lot of leave, so the government creates official leave for everyone.  

We’re rather more restrained when it comes to public holidays in the UK, so the fact we’ve got three in May feels like something of a luxury.  

In that sense I’d prefer the way things are here in the UK, where leave entitlement is more plentiful and flexible and we aren’t all bound to take the same days off at the same time.  

But there’s more! We’ve become no strangers to strikes in the past few months. May looks set for things to get, shall we say, rather worse… 

There are multiple days of, deep breath, teachers, nurses and other NHS workers, GSK workers and Heathrow security staff striking. I’m sure this list will likely grow.  

With that, maybe we should just all pack it in for May, take our leave and have a month off? Alas, never that simple in practice unfortunately.  

As for events that are actually happening… 

We’ve got an early rate decision from the US on 2 May, followed by the Bank of England on 11 May. 

The coronation is on 6 May, with the feted bank holiday on 8 May.  

ONS monthly employment falls on 16 May, while inflation is on 24 May.  

And to cap it all off, one more bank holiday on 29 May. To those of you who pulled the “take eight days leave get two weeks off” trick, I commend your spirit for cancelling a bit of May. 

All the best from us here at MRM and Mouthy Money.