On Keeping The Sabbath Day Shopping
A Touch Of Nokoko By Kofi Akumanyi
At last some form of solution has appeared over the horizon and supporters of Sunday trading are over the moon while those opposed to it are hopping mad.
But the whole argument about whether shops should be open for business on Sundays still baffles me, and I'm sure, a few other non-British. I mean Britain as one of the world's foremost exporter of missionaries who spread their proselytising zeal all over the world and inculcated into the newly-won Christians the importance of obeying the scriptures now seems to be hell-bent on trampling on God's sacred rules on the Sabbath.
An opinion poll commissioned by the National Consumer Council has revealed that 69 percent of people wanted shops to be allowed to open on a Sunday. It is claimed that many shops are already breaking the rule, anyway, so the new law would only legitimise the situation and remove the contradictions from the system once and for all.
I must say that as a Christian from Africa where we take our religion quite seriously, I am rather worried at this disappointing and retrogressive step. So as a strong campaigner of the society for the "Keep the Shops Closed on Sundays" I have been conducting a survey round the area I live among a cross-section of the neighbours and I came up with some startling views on the whole Sunday shopping question.
"You've operated this shop for many years; why do you want Sunday Shopping legalised?" I asked one local newsagent.
"Because I think the restrictions have not been effective at all, especially since there are deliberate loop-holes to be exploited."
"Loop-holes? What loop-holes?"
"Broadly speaking, on Sundays you can sell newspapers, magazines and fresh foods. Anything else isn't legal."
"I should have thought that's clear enough."
"It should be except that the definition of fresh foods has been stretched to cover other items."
"I don't understand it; this is a little confusing. What other items?" I asked.
"Well, Schedule 5 of the Shops Act, 1950 attempted to clarify the situation. It stipulated that many shops may open on Sunday for the sale of food and drinks for immediate consumption."
"What does that mean?"
"It means just that, dummy! Things like confectionary, medicines, tobacco, aircraft, motor or cycle supplies or accessories, newspapers, periodicals, magazines, sundry items concerned with specific activities like post office business and - wait for it - funeral undertakings," he said.
"You can't very well let the poor corpse rot on a Sunday, can you? But can one buy stationery to write a letter?"
"No! That's not for immediate consumption, in much the same way as a grocer is allowed to sell fresh but not canned tomatoes!"
"I give up. I shall go and live in Scotland where I understand the laws are more liberal."
"Well, they are, if you can understand why hairdressers and fish and chips shops over there are excluded from working on Sundays."
"Are they really? Well, I'll be damned. I would have thought that there is no food which qualifies more for immediate consumption than fish and chips."
"You're right. But do you realise that you can buy Chinese and other take-away foods from restaurants?"
"Definitely not. I didn't, and I think this is an obnoxious discrimination against a much-loved traditional and delicious English food," I said with indignation.
"Discrimination? Please calm down and don't talk about that until you realise that Jewish traders are allowed to open on a Sunday up till 2pm. provided they close on Saturday, their Sabbath," he informed me.
"You don't say so!"
"Yes and the Muslim shopkeepers have over the years protested because contrary to the expectation that they too should be exempted for Sunday shopping because their Sabbath is Friday, but unfortunately they’re not!”
"Now, I must confess that I’m totally befuddled. It doesn't make sense anymore," I said. "But tell me, do you think this new initiative to make the government change the rules will succeed?"
"Well, from what I hear, the Home Office Committee of inquiry on the issue is poised to recommend abolition of the laws, thanks to pressure from shopkeepers and the National Consumer Council."
"That's OK... but listen, doesn't it look suspicious to you that the government, after over 34 years of resistance to a change in the law, is about to do it NOW?"
"Well, I didn't want to reveal this but you look like an honest man who would keep a secret. So I'll tell you why," he said. "It's really a simple deduction. You see, the conservative government has reckoned that with its wage policy working so effectively, unemployment rising to four million, and the miners out on a limb, Sunday shopping will die a natural death; there will be no money to shop with!"
