Growing clamour for death of shops bill

THE SHOPS BILL, which completed its passage through the Lords this week, is still at the centre of furious controversy, with an ever-growing number of Catholic Church leaders joining in the public denouncement of Sunday trading.
Archbishop John Ward of Cardiff is the latest Catholic leader to issue a public statement against the Bill: during a "Keep Sunday Special" public meeting last week, the archbishop spoke out in vehement tones against the negative effect which Sunday deregulation would have on the family.
As Tory MPs came under growing pressure from their constituents, the Government last week launched a counterattack, when Home Secretary Douglas Hurd roundly condemned the Church's position on deregulation as "intellectually and morally hard to defend".
Sixty one MPs (54 of them Conservative) have already signed an early day motion requesting a free vote on the bill once it reaches the Commons. Catholic Conservative MP Sir John Biggs-Davison (Epping Forest) declared that "Many Tories have been angered by rumours that the Cabinet intends to put a three-line whip on the bill when it receives its second reading in the Commons."