Alan Dee - A bank holiday bonanza or a bit of a boob from the happy couple?

If you’re lucky enough to be in a nine to five job where bank holidays are accepted as a welcome break rather than a blessed nuisance – in fact, if you’re lucky enough to be in a job at all – you’ll probably have spotted that the decision to drop in the nuptials at the end of April has created an opportunity to blag a whole fortnight off for the cost of just three working days from your holiday allowance.

You’ve got the four day Easter weekend which is coming up – weeks later than usual but that’s the way the calendar crumbles.

And then three days after the nation has reluctantly dragged itself back to work will all be getting ready for a Friday of street parties, loyal telly watching and commenting on ludicrous hats as the to the throne gets hitched.

That’s the start of another four day bank holiday break, what with the May Day celebration following on the Monday, so if you got in early you could carve out a full 11 days away from work.

Well, some of you could.

People with jobs that involve shifts, variable work patterns or designated rotas won’t have been so lucky.

And anyone in a service or support role – which takes in everything from easyJet pilots to intensive care unit nurses, firemen to fast food flingers, pub staff to paramedics – will probably have to report in as usual, however much of a royalist or a hat watcher they might be.

By agreeing to walk up the aisle on the appointed day, Prince William and his bride to be have shown themselves to be just as clueless about the workings of everyday life in this realm as most other rich and pampered folk.

Cynics have said that the wedding has been slotted in to take everyone’s mind off the grim state of the economy and put us all in a good mood before the elections that follow a few days later.

If that was the idea, they’ve come a cropper.

For every worker able to book a sunshine break on the Costas with the family, there will be two cursing the inconvenience.

Small businesses who are struggling to make ends meet will have to put up with disrupted trading or production, and give all their workers a buckshee day off on top.

In years gone by shift workers and others called in on bank holidays could have relied on a bit of extra cash in their wage packets to compensate – I’ll bet those who are on double time are a dying breed these days.

Calling these breaks bank holidays is about right – like everything to do with banks, they end up costing us no matter how they dress it up.

If it was up to me I’d have made them get married on a Saturday like the rest of us, and if there had to be a bank holiday involved, hold off until later in the year.

Where’s the sense in four days off in a fortnight when we don’t get another one for months?

But for now I will just have to fondly imagine the traffic jams, airport queues, and sundry other trials of travelling that the 2.5 million people apparently planning a foreign break over the Easter/wedding break could be in for.

Add a grumbling Icelandic volcano into the mix and it could well be a classic...