August Bank Holiday weekend again, it's raining (predictably) and all the TV experts are forecasting enormous traffic jams on the motorways, overcrowding on the trains, and delays at the airports.

Why do we do it? Bank holidays were introduced decades and decades ago in order to ensure that the humblest manual workers got at least some days off. Since in those days it was a cash economy, if you closed the banks then businesses couldn't operate, and they would have to give their workers a day off. But things have changed. Many, perhaps most, shops stay open throughout bank holiday weekends, and public transport (for what it's worth) keeps on running.

Meanwhile, those of us in factories and offices use it as a good opportunity (or excuse) for an excursion to the beach, and as we all head lemming-like in the same direction at the same time, large parts of the country grind into gridlock.

Do we really need a bank holiday in August, when so many people take August holidays anyway? Do we really need two holiday weekends in May, hot on the heels of the Easter Bank Holiday weekend?

Bank holidays are an anachronism. By all means have a regulation that employers must offer their staff reasonable holiday entitlements. But let workers take those holidays as and when they and their employers decide, and spare us all that transport gridlock. Maybe the weather might improve, too.