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August 10, 2008

Busy Sundays .....

An interesting encounter with a Dutch couple who were visiting the Abbey this morning has got me thinking. They commented that they used to enjoy visiting Amsterdam on a Sunday - because everything was closed and there were no crowds. Now that is no longer possible because all the shops are open and the place is crawling with trippers. Their point was that with the secularisation of everything and the twenty-four hour, seven days a week trading, no one has time to rest, to take "time out" from the pressures of work, crowds, people and the need to earn enough to enjoy a frenetic "holiday" once a year - in crowded tourist destinations.

This touches on something which runs very deep indeed. The likes of the Boardroom denizens still occuppy their exclusive clubs and restuarants on Sundays and have Saturday and Sunday "at home" with the family and friends (Assuming Torquil and Henrietta are on hols from their expensive boarding schools) - but those they employ are never given that option. At least in the days when Sunday Trading was banned, every family had at least one day in the week when they could all take time out together. Not anymore. I wonder if it has even dawned on the denizens of the various Boardrooms, Whitehall and the Westminster parasites that this is a major reason families are falling apart? Fathers and mothers frequently work different shift patterns and so Mum has Monday off and Dad may have Wednesday off. That is how the law is interpreted - as long as every employee gets two days completely off in any working week - it can be ANY two days.

This is why we frequently see half a family in church and never see both together at the same time. It is also why one sees feral children running around unchecked on a Sunday. Both parents are probably at work! There was a great deal of sense in having one day in the week on which no trading was permitted. There is no need whatever for the likes of Sainsbury's, Tesco or anyone else among the mega stores to trade 24/7 - except the greed of their Boardrooms.

It is perhaps time to step back and take a good hard look at where their corporate greed is taking us.

Posted by The Gray Monk at August 10, 2008 02:00 PM

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Comments

The best coffee shop in my little town refuses to open on Sunday, despite request from his customers. He states his reason as everyone needs time off for famliy, and since he won't work sunday he won't make his employee's work sunday. It makes it a hot place for the teens to work, cause you can party on Saturday night and not worry about working sunday.

Posted by: skipjack at August 19, 2008 09:39 PM

I like this guy - if only there were more people like him around.

Posted by: The Gray Monk at August 20, 2008 07:28 AM