No To Margaret Thatcher Day Bank Holiday: Bid by Peter Bone MP Fails

The much loved August bank holiday shall not become 'Margaret Thatcher Day', after a bid to rename it failed.

A Bill in parliament to change the name of the national day off in England and Wales did not make it past its second reading at Westminster today (Friday).

Conservative MP Peter Bone had championed the Bill, hailing Thatcher as a politician of "courage and conviction."

But this view was not universal, judging by the addition of 7,000 signatures to a petition opposing the move on the day Bone's Bill failed. A total of more than 124,000 people signed the online petition by campaign website 38 Degrees against the Bill.

Among opposition to Bone's Bill was a comment by one petition signatory who wrote: "If this Bank Holiday ends up being called 'Thatcher Day' I, for one, will feel compelled to boycott it and go to work."

Bone's bid for Margaret Thatcher Day failed because parliament ran out of time to discuss it, with more than 30 private member's bills slated to be debated in the House of Commons on the same day.

Explaining why he thought Thatcher deserved the accolade of having a bank holiday named in her honour, Bone told parliament: "Baroness Thatcher was without doubt one of the greatest prime ministers in living memory.

"She not only did our country a great service but she gave our country back its pride and returned it to economic prosperity after some of the darkest days. She gave us a legacy to be proud of."

IBTimes UK contacted Mr Bone but he was unavailable for comment.