Abstract
Magnus Pyke, scientist and popular T.V. presenter, died in 1992. It must be about 30 years ago that, with his typical quixotic scientific ingenuity, plus his usual sense of fun, he wrote to The Times newspaper suggesting a more radical version of the four-day working week. 1
Never a popular day, he suggested that Mondays should be abolished altogether. This would then leave four weekdays, plus the weekend, a total of six days in a whole week. He described the advantages as follows: to maintain the same level of productivity and output, there would be more job vacancies, less unemployment and a six-day week would create more weekends in a year which would benefit the leisure industry including sports, theatre, restaurants, clubs and more weekend shopping, boosting retail outlets.
I don’t remember him mentioning any impact on the health service, but ‘most’ of us would welcome an early arrival of the weekend.