Sunday Trading

At present, there are two open petitions asking for Sunday trading to be banned, plus one closed one requesting the same, plus another closed one wanting all Sunday trading restrictions to be cancelled. The PM's office has responded to one of the closed ones saying "After careful consideration of all the views and evidence we received on this subject, it was clear that there is no substantial demand for change to the present regime. Most respondents believe the current situation strikes the right balance between all the interests involved."

So why bother with the open petitions? And why two of them?

Admittedly, they're not quite the same. One is entitled Keep the Sabbath Holy. Shops should be closed and no professional games of sport played on that day and has no explanatory notes. The other is entitled Reintroduce a ban on Sunday trading and the explanatory notes say

"The country needs to chill out a bit. Sundays are now as manic as Saturdays, everyone needs some time to rest and spend with family and friends. Ban all shops from opening on Sunday except for small local stores."

So OK, they're coming from, ah, rather different perspectives. But given that the original petition on the subject only got 143 votes ... what do they think they're doing?

I love the idea of professional sport being a particular problem. Other people work on Sundays too ... if you're that fussed, perhaps you should be suggesting that factories that run 24-7 at the moment be stopped on Sundays, for example ..