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1HOW long has Britain had official bank holidays?

A. 72 years B. 146 years C. 179 years D. 305 years

2WHICH part of the UK has the most bank holidays?

A. Northern Ireland B. Wales C. Scotland D. England

3TrUe Or False: ‘Bank-holidayish’ is a real word. 4HOW much does each bank holiday cost the British economy?

A. £500,000 B. £48 million C. £2.3 billion D. £7.2 billion

5WHICH of these did NOT merit a bank holiday?

A. The birth of Prince Charles B. The turn of the millennium C. William and Kate’s wedding D. The 50th anniversary of VE Day

6WHICH prime minister once called an emergency bank holiday to save the economy?

A. Tony Blair B. Winston Churchill C. Margaret Thatcher D. Harold Wilson

ANSWERS 1) B. 146 years

We have a banker to thank for our legally recognised bank holidays. Liberal MP Sir

John Lubbock authored the Bank Holidays Act of 1871, which gave Brits an extra four days off (Easter Monday, the first Monday in August, whit Monday and Boxing Day). He said that it was to help the working classes, but it is thought the cricket fan chose some dates when matches were due to be played in his home county.

2) A. Northern Ireland

in A Normal year, there are 8 bank holidays in England, 9 in Scotland (thanks to St Andrew’s Day) and 10 in northern ireland (including St Patrick’s Day and the Battle of the Boyne, or orangemen’s Day). Meanwhile, Spain has a minimum of 14, Portugal 13, Greece 12 and France 11.

3) TRUE

Bank-holidayish means, according to the oxford English Dictionary, ‘characteristic of or suitable for a bank holiday’, and was in use as far back as 1894.

4) C. £2.3 billion

Economists at the Centre for Economics and Business research said in 2012 that scrapping our bank holidays would boost our annual output by almost £19 billion.

5) A. The birth of Prince Charles

THE Queen can appoint special bank holidays under the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971. in 1999, an extra one was declared on new year’s Eve to celebrate the turn of the millennium. in 2011, Brits got an extra day off on April 29 to mark the wedding of Prince william and Kate Middleton. And in 1995, the May Day bank holiday — usually the first Monday of the month — was moved to May 8 to mark the 50th anniversary of VE Day.

6) D. Harold Wilson

in THE 1968 sterling crisis, Harold wilson ordered an emergency meeting of the Privy Council on March 14 to declare a bank holiday the next day. He did this to shut the London gold market for a day and stop a run on sterling (foreign secretary and deputy prime minister George Brown resigned over it).