The latest pre-Budget trail in the newspapers is that the government plans to confront an issue that caused Margaret Thatcher’s only Commons defeat as Prime Minister and further relax Sunday trading laws. Ministers are keen to allow elected mayors and councils the freedoms to relax the laws in their areas.
George Osborne said that there is ‘some evidence that transactions for Sunday shopping are actually growing faster than those for Saturday’, while his colleague Anna Soubry said ‘Sunday was the most miserable day of the week’ before people were allowed to shop. Thatcher first tried to make Sundays less ‘miserable’ in 1986, but was defeated thanks to a backlash from Christian MPs and trade unions, with the Sunday Trading Act finally passing in 1994.
What will be interesting is which groups mounts the fiercest opposition: the church or the trade unions. Both are less powerful than they once were, though one has membership that is declining, while the other is holding steady, though far below its peak.
Get Britain's best politics newsletters
Register to get The Spectator's insight and opinion straight to your inbox. You can then read two free articles each week.
Already a subscriber? Log in
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in