It was fantastic to shop on Good Friday

From Robert Davies.

I WAS totally appalled that people were ‘appalled’ that Waitrose opened over Easter. I thought it was fantastic that I could do my shopping as per normal.

Jersey is a multi-cultural and multi-faith society, so why should people who are not Christian be affected by Christian religious beliefs and principles? I am totally against religion in government and school such as prayer time in the States, but that’s a different story.

When it’s the Festival of Lent, should we close the supermarkets in Jersey when Christians are fasting in respect of their belief? We should do – it would stop them from being tempted. Or should we ban selling pork on Jewish and Islamic holidays in Jersey because it’s against their religion to eat it? What about alcohol? All three Abrahamic religions and their branches have varying positions on the consumption of it. Where do you draw the line?

If you ask most people what their religion is in Jersey, I’m sure they will say they are ‘Christian’, but in effect, they are no more Christian then the Pope is Protestant. Most people see Easter as holiday time – a long weekend to go and do something exciting, such as going away, having a BBQ, or even DIY, but not as a religious holiday. Ask children what they think Easter is, and they will no doubt say the Easter Bunny and chocolate eggs.

It’s time we modernised our government and laws so they are not influenced by religious beliefs. I believe in full, non-regulated Sunday trading, with any shop being allowed to open any day of the week (bank holidays, religious days, Christmas, etc.) with no restrictions on opening hours.

The shops would be able to decide when and for how long they want to remain open including 24 hour. We live in a free market society, and if there is no demand for Sunday, Easter, Christmas, Bank holiday trading then the shops will not open. The shops are not going to open if there is no demand.

Waitrose answered an important question for Jersey, how much do we care about religion or Easter? Obviously not enough to be concerned about doing our shopping over Easter.

What I do find hypocritical about these people who are die-hard against trading over a Sunday/Easter, etc. are that these people will happily shop online, buy a newspaper, buy milk, or bread on Sunday or Easter bank holidays at a Spar or Checkers or Amazon.

But why stop at shops though? Why are the people who are against Sunday/Easter trading not in uproar about other businesses working on these days, such as transport, hotels, radio, TV newspapers, bars, restaurants etc.?

In places like London, Sunday and other ‘special days’ are the busiest days of the week, and if London and the rest of the UK, had the same attitude as Jersey with no Sunday/Easter trading, then the entire country would grind to a halt.

However, what I do think about the people who are made or volunteered to work on a weekend must be compensated properly in any industry. If these businesses are made to compensate properly at those rates, it might not be financially sound to open.

To summarise, all businesses (transport, shops, restaurants, utilities, news, etc.) operating on a Sunday or ‘special days’ must either close, or pay their staff highly, with the local authority only objecting on disturbance-of-the-peace issues, with no one being able to force the closure because they object on religious grounds.