First Minister Bows to SNP Youth Wing's Pressure

Commenting on the announcement that Jack McConnell is supportive of the idea to create a public holiday on St Andrew's Day, Young Scots for Independence (YSI) Senior Vice Convenor, Steven Carleschi said:

"The First Minister has obviously been convinced of our arguments, our text referendum and post card campaign each calling for St Andrew's Day to be made a public holiday."

His comments are a complete reversal of what the Executive said in a letter to us after receiving our post cards. Nevertheless, we are glad he has seen sense. I just hope that when the issue of a public holiday on St Andrew's day is debated in Parliament he gets the correct date because in that same letter, the Scottish Executive seemed to think our national day landed on the 31st November - a date that doesn't exist!

Scotland already has fewer public holidays than most European nations, so we remain disappointed that the workers and students of Scotland won't get an extra well-deserved day-off from work, university or school.

However, we remain pleased that Mr McConnell has listened to the YSI and has now seen that a celebration of our country on our patron saint's day should be a positive event."