Charles Platt – Editor at Large

I’m not going to bore you with the details as to why, because the same bloke (me) spent all day yesterday talking about it, but yes, your English colleague is currently in the manager’s/general counsel’s/supervising partner’s office trying to get Monday off work.

Even more audaciously, he’s trying to have his cake and eat it too, trying to make a case that he should be able to take it as one of his two annual cultural days, which are realistically supposed to be taken for traditional cultural holidays not accounted for in our deeply Christianized public holiday schedule rather than football matches.

On the other hand, you have to appreciate his commitment to squeezing every penny he can out of his employer, and frankly, the more people take their cultural days, the better. Read your EA; you’re probably entitled to them.

Oh, and by the way, it is actually coming home this time.