The French (supposedly) do it, so why not us? We get two writers to weigh up the pros and cons of the August shutdown in this week’s debate

YES: The August shutdown means everybody gets to enjoy high summer, while firms save on office costs

The start of summer will always bring back childhood memories of there being nothing to watch on television for the first two weeks of school holidays. That’s because I grew up in Leicestershire, where factories all having agreed to close down for the first two weeks of July meant we finished classes before children’s television took over daytime schedules.

The advent of streaming means today’s children no longer need to sit around listlessly; still, the world of work has gone backwards. As workplaces have diversified and employment rights evolved, such sensible arrangements as Leicester’s old July Fortnight have become rarer, with firms struggling along with skeletal staff as they coordinate everyone taking different weeks off for their annual leave. This inevitably creates logjams as meetings are stood down due to low attendance and projects are stalled upon waiting for people to return from their holidays.

These........

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