So, Michael Howard has proposed to make "Tax Freedom Day" a bank holiday. Writing in the Times, Peter Riddell points out some of the flaws:

Yet Tax Freedom Day is also a deeply flawed concept. Mr Howard’s reference to “the day when you stop working for the taxman, and start working for yourself” is both revealing and misleading. It implies that no one benefits from the money they pay in taxes and, by implication, that this money is wasted (an implicit Tory theme). Do taxpayers get no benefit from the NHS or defence spending? Moreover, it is impossible to discuss tax without also considering public expenditure.

The political debate should be about the balance between the two. Focusing only on tax distorts the real choice.

Mr Howard and Oliver Letwin are right to give warning about the dangers of rising taxes, especially when they are hidden. But it is bogus to talk about holding down taxes, or even cutting them (where Mr Howard is cautious) unless you have first shown how you intend to reduce the size of the state. Most of the Tories’ recent promises — on abolishing tuition fees, raising pensions in line with earnings, and patient and parent “passports” or vouchers — involve substantial extra expenditure. Broadening the choice of public services does not save money in the short term.

To be honest, I much prefer Matthew Turner's suggestion of a Work Freedom Day that marks the average day on which people have finished their work for the year. But, at least the Tories are proposing that we should be getting an extra day off a year. Except, of course, they're not:

The idea of creating a new bank holiday in the spring, when Britain already enjoys a series of breaks, is likely to alarm business leaders. Aides to the Tory leader said they would be sensitive to such concerns and might consider scrapping the May Day bank holiday at the beginning of the month or the second break at the end of the month.

The idea of getting rid of May Day because we 'have too many bank holidays in a short space of time' has been floated around for several years - I can remember hearing of plans by the last Conservative government to get rid of it in favour of something in October/November instead - but it's all a bit ironic, really. After all, we keep getting told that Labour want to destroy all our ancient traditions in the name of modernity, yet now here are the Tories proposing to get rid of either May Day, which has been a day of celebration since time immemorial, in favour of making some political point of a holiday instead. It's political incorrectness gone mad...

Update: Matthew Turner has some more objections to the idea.