Church and union leaders have condemned attempts by big stores to extend their opening times by four hours on the Sunday before Christmas.
Retailers fear deepening economic gloom and a slowing housing market will spell disaster during their most important trading period of the year. They want the government to relax the law that restricts opening hours to six hours on Sundays.
This year Christmas falls on a Tuesday, which retailers say makes the previous Sunday the most important shopping day of the year. Consumers tend to do their last-minute present shopping two days before 25 December, leaving Christmas Eve free to buy food.
Unions and other campaigners – who successfully fought off attempts to relax Sunday trading laws during a government review two years ago – oppose any move for a rethink.
“I suppose you’ll want Christmas off, Cratchit.” – E. Scrooge
The COE picks this battle…when an infinitesimal percentage of members show up on any given Sunday in the first place? The COE would do better to put their energy into spreading the Word and “advertising” the fact that Christ is coming during this Advent season.