Catholic MPs split on looming Sunday trading law battle

By LUCY LETHBRIDGE
CATHOLIC MPs ARE divided on the Government's major new proposals to deregulate shopping on Sunday.
Opponents of the planned reforms, published in a White Paper last week, say that it is necessary to preserve a "day of rest" and safeguard the rights of shopworkers, though some argue that secular law should not impose itself on how people spend their Sundays.
The Government proposals, likely to be debated in the Autumn, present four options for Sunday trading from total de-regulation to allowing only small number of corner shops to open. The debate is set to reawaken Cristian opposition to Sunday shopping. The defeat of the last attempt introduce seven-day shopping in 1986 produced the only defeat for Margaret Thatcher's 12year government, when lobbying by the Churches played a vital part in preventing the bill going through Parliament.
Greg Pope, Catholic and Labour MP for Hyndburn, said this week that he supported an option for partial de-regulation, but rejected a move to allow shops to open on the four Sundays before Christmas as "extremely duplicitous". He said that the group, Retailers t'or Shops Act Reform, who proposed the option, "gave religious reasons and yet they propose to lift the Sunday trading restrictions for four of the holiest Sundays of the year."
Labour MP Peter Kilfoyle (Liverpool, Walton) said: 'We have more than enough shopping as it is and I resent the imposition on people's lives to buy and sell more. It is important there be one day which is kept for reflection."
But in the week that M7 Major has made public his support of total deregulation, Catholic Tory MP David Atkinson (Bournemouth East) expressed his support for the Prime Minister. He said "I think it is wrong in principle to use the secular law to impose on people what they should or should not do on Sundays."
Catholic bishops this week warned that, aside from religious considerations, the propect of Sunday shopping would have serious consequences on family life.
Bishop John Jukes, Chairman of the Bishop's Committee for the World of Work, acknowledged that there could be serious problems "if employees are offered jobs contingent on their willingness to work on Sunday".
Bishop Leo McCartie of Northampton, one of the patrons of the Keep Sunday Special Campaign (KSSC), said: "Society needs a day which is free of commerce and set aside for family gathering and reflection".
The four options proposed by the White Paper are: • Total de-regulation, which would allow all shops to open any time on a Sunday.
• Partial de-regulation, (proposed by the Shopping Hours Reform Council) which would allow all small shops to open at any time on Sunday but would restrict the opening hours of big stores.
• A shops based scheme permitting limited opening (proposed by the KSSC) which would close the majority of shops but allow small corner shops to stay open.
• A shops based scheme (proposed by the RSAR) which would extend the number of shops allowed to open, and let all shops to open on four Sundays before Christmas.