Rule Britannia

Looking around the internet at the latest holiday offers, of all the locations in the world to visit, the place to be this summer is believed it or not the UK.

Government officials have allocated £3 million towards a TV advertising campaign, the first of its kind on this scale, to encourage us not to take our hard earned cash abroad but to spend it here in Blighty.

The year of the “staycation” seems to be getting off to a good start with thousands of offers to tempt us, thereby boosting our economy. There are so many offers it’s hard to know where to begin. From three day London Passes, which offer free admission to 55 of our capitals top tourist attractions for just £32.30 (while stocks last), to Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s 20.12 discount scheme which offers 20.12% off visits to our favourite places, such as the sixteen breath-taking lakes we have, Alton Towers, Warner Bros studios in London where you can experience the new Harry Potter attraction, this list is possibly endless.

On the economic front, an estimated 12,000 jobs are being created to cope with the expected £5.3 million worth of short/overnight breaks, generating a hopeful £480 million in tourist revenue over the next two to three years toward our economy.

We have so many unique attractions, to show to the world, our American cousins are sure to be flocking over here to experience our long and varied cultural heritage. (And possible to check our top quality pyro (a friend of mine from McKinley, Texas, still can’t believe the power and quality of fireworks we can set off any day of the year here in the UK. Being limited to just 500 grams of powder in their cakes (if they can have them at all) as they are banned in a lot of states in the US their choices are somewhat limited.

We will, of course, be open to supply FIREWORKS to all the patriotic, looking for the best quality, best priced, red white and blue (as well as all the other colours of the spectrum) consumer 1.3 & 1.4g fireworks, So far with still two months to go, Councils up and down the UK have already received over 6,500 applications for street closures to celebrate our Queens Diamond Jubilee (that’s already 1000 more than last year’s Royal wedding) with more applications being received daily. The phones here at Epic HQ being busier than expected, our new “Diamond Jubilee” Pack proving very popular.

The forthcoming Olympics and Diamond Jubilee celebrations have seen over 100,000 rooms being reserved in and around London for visitors to the capital so it may be time to plan ahead to avoid disappointment as hotel rooms around London will be expected to be as rare as rocking horse poop.

Local Councils around the country have been planning ahead for some time now; there are lots of incentives for all of us to get involved in a big way.

Basildon Council this year is offering 100 'double party in a box' packs free of charge, for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. Each box includes 25 bowler hats, 25 handheld flags, 25 balloons, a pack of bunting and one large flag– one St George's themed and one Union Jack themed - along with a template poster for each event for residents to use for promotion. Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council have taken the initiative and taken out one blanket insurance policy to cover all the events in their catchment area, so good news there.

So all in all, it seems that us British are destined to have a bumper year with all the things planned and hopefully (fingers crossed) the weather won’t let us down.

If like thousands of others, you are planning a party, check out your local council's website, as a quick look shows just about all the councils in the UK are offering information, hints and tips, celebration packs, insurance, and in general it's mostly free. Its not very often you get something for free these days, unless of course you chose to collect our ”Diamond Jubilee” Fireworks Pack which offers £149.95 of free Sky Thriller Rockets, enough to cover the fuel of just about anybody in the UK to visit the UK’s BIGGEST Fireworks shop.