Spectator's Notebook
THE decision to move August Bank Holiday ex- perimentally in 1965 and 1966 is a commendable, but modest, attack upon a social problem which is bound to become steadily more acute. Dr. Peter Hall's in some ways alarm- ing article in this issue of the Spectator emphasises the terrific pressure which the rising population is going to place upon our resources. We are no doubt doomed to con- gested cities, horribly crowded trains, and fierce competition for living and working space. We can at least make life more comfortable by agree- ing that we should not all take our leisure at the same time. Spreading summer holidays over a longer period is an obvious step. I think we shall have to go much further and 'stagger,' not only our working days, but our weekends too. This goes against certain popular demands today. People are still inclined to think it desirable to have their days off when everybody else is doing so. Painful experience in the coming years will, I fancy, change this view. Those who already have their 'weekends' on unconventional days— many journalists, for example—know the pleasures of escaping the worst summer crowds. The only difficulty, of course, is that we may be producing a generation so conditioned by over- crowding that its members feel lonely and in- secure away from the herd. But I do not think we have quite reached that depressing state yet.
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