A leading clergyman says the country is in danger of losing touch with the saying all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy - because we're all working too hard.

Dean of Ripon, the Very Reverend John Methuen, is concerned about the way British society now regards rest, recreation and leisure.

With more than a million people unemployed, he said those in work were "probably overworked and are nowadays being encouraged not even to retire but to work until they drop".

In his Ripon Cathedral August newsletter, Dean Methuen says this cannot be healthy and the seven-day working week now meant a whole concept of corporate rest was lost.

He said: "We have fewer public holidays than any other country in Europe.

"We have fewer workers' protection rights in terms of allowing people to opt out of Sunday working and unsociable hours.

"And we have businesses and industries making wholesale demands on employees without regard to their personal, domestic or family lives."

He said for many, the Protestant work ethic had entered their bones and that it was beneficial to holiday and share in cultures for which leisure was a much more precious commodity than for us.

Dean Methuen said people could learn from their holidays abroad - "those Greek islands, those lazy days on the Riviera".

He said: "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy is one of those sayings that we are in some danger of losing in Britain today.

"And we must guard against it."