Bank Holidays

The national bank holiday stirred the American people as few things have. It brought them face to face with those mystical things called money, bank credits, deposits and other things the man on the street has always taken for granted. Mr. Schachner had written the final installment of his masterful Revolt of the Scientists around this theme. Scientists take a hand in this tremendous game of dealing with billions of dollars with the lives of millions. Bankers for once find themselves confronted with forces that they are not trained to... 

As Exhibit 13.14 shows, yields have fluctuated on a month-on-month basis, both in Europe and in the United States, owing to the different number of days available for collection each month. For example, there was an extra bank holiday in June 2002 in the United Kingdom for the Queen s Jubilee Celebration. As more than 90% of European credit card trusts hold solely UK collateral, the reduced number of collection days in June had a significant impact on our European performance indicators. Cash collections for the master trusts fell by more than a fifth in June with a direct knock-on effect of reducing portfolio yield by almost 20%. 

It must be remembered also that a certain amount of damage to local authority property takes place every Bank Holiday. According to the Deputy Publicity Manager of Margate," for example, the number of deckchairs broken (fifty) was not much greater than on an ordinary Bank Holiday weekend there were also more chairs out on Whit Sunday than ever before. 

The predictions in the inventory period took the form of reported statements from local figures such as tradesmen, coimcil-lors and police spokesmen about what should be done next time or of immediate precautions they had taken. More important, youths were asked in TV interviews about their plans for the next Bank Holiday and interviews were printed with either a Mod or a Rocker threatening revenge next time . The following are extracts from two such interviews Southend and places won t let us in any more. It will get difficult here and so next year we ll probably go to Ramsgate or Hastings (Daily Express, 30 March 1964). It could have been better - the weather spoiled it a bit. Wait until next Whitsun. Now that will be a real giggle (Daily Mirror, 31 March 1964). 

In Poplar now, life is probably peaceful and quiet over the Bank Holidays. [Headmaster)... 

The elements of diffusion, escalation and innovation can all be distinguished in the police reaction. In the first place, the preparations for each Bank Holiday weekend became increasingly complex and sophisticated. At the initial incident in Clacton, the police were almost totally unprepared but in the course of the amplification process, an organization and set of practices were built up specifically geared to Bank Holiday hooliganism. Police... 

Minus i,ooo normally spent on overtime each Bank Holiday 4,000... 

Immediately after the motion was announced, I contacted Alderman E who referred me to the other major figure behind the motion, Alderman K., who in the next four months, through letters, discussions and a questionnaire, was my main source of information about the group. At the time of the motion being tabled, Alderman K. was Chairman of the Watch Committee. He is also a journalist who, for many years, had contributed a regular feature on the Bank Holiday for a local newspaper. 

The measures were exclusively hailed as direct reprisals against the Mods and Rockers Brooke Hits Hooligans in the Pocket , Brooke Rocks the Rockers , New Move to Stamp Out Mod Violence , etc. The specificity of the Act was shown in Mr Brooke s own statement I hope that, with the help of the House, it [the Act] will be in operation before the August Bank Holiday. ... 

Initially, the warning system operated only locally and was confined to certain seaside resorts on the south coast. Although there was nothing intrinsic in the Clacton event to expect that it would be repeated, the way it was reacted to made the threat of a repeat performance very real to the other resorts. It needed only one interview with a Rocker who said (or who was quoted as saying) Next time Brighton will get it to increase the threat. The atmosphere of expectation and apprehension before the Bank Holiday immediately after Clacton can be gauged from the local press at the time. 

As the societal control culture moved towards diffusion, esca lation and innovation, so did the warning system become more formalized and bureaucratized. Shortly before August Bank Holiday, 1964, the Home Office Airborne Police Scheme to fly reinforcements in RAF Transport Command, was publicized. A local paper, in a report headed Town Is Ready For All Comers announced that besides elaborate pohce preparations, special arrangements had been made to open the Town Hall courtroom over the weekend. (Hostings and St Leonards Observer, 1 April 1965). These were not only warnings but stage setting ceremonies there was no doubt that the show would take place, one just had to make sure that the folk devils and their denouncers would have the appropriate arenas for their performance. 

Passivity and expectancy were the dominant moods, and the context - the ritual Bank Holiday weekend by the sea — was one of leisure and entertainment. Brighton, Clacton, Margate, Southend - whatever the differences between them — share common characteristics on these occasions a certain shabbiness, the overstrained and overpriced commercial facilities, a strange sensation of crowds moving almost randomly around you, and the all-pervasive smell of onions, hot dogs and fish and chips, the sense of cheapness and somehow having been cheated. ... 

Once a dominant perception is estabhshed the tendency is to assimilate all subsequent happenings to it. It is in this context that one must view the relatively trivial incidents which attracted attention and sometimes triggered off trouble. Through the process of sensitization, incidents which would not have been defined as unusual or worthy of attention during a normal Bank Holiday weekend, acquired a new meaning. 

The bulk of the fieldwork on the project was carried out between 1964 and 1967. The time between Easter 1964 (the date of the first Mods and Rockers event at Clacton) and September 1966 (the end of a three-year cycle of Bank Holiday weekends) is referred to as the research period. The following were the main sources of data used ... 

Tape recordings of most national radio and television (BBC) news broadcasts over the Bank Holiday weekends during the research period. 

Declaration of a bank holiday to close down business... 

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