18 DECEMBER 1993, Page 55

Ten days' wonder

THE CABINET committee on not making up its mind about bank holidays has turned its attention to the twelve days of Christ- mas. My man in the stationery cupboard says that the plan is to scale them down to ten. This is in accordance with the Euro- pean directive on the decimalisation of time. Lords a-leaping and ladies dancing are considered anomalous, but Strasbourg geese will continue to lay. The Royal Shakespeare Company will stage a sub- sidised production of Tenth Night, or Like It Or Not. December, as etymologically the tenth month, will continue, and there will be transitional arrangements to permit the observation of the 2.5th.