Re: Public Consultation – Draft Legislation Paper – Draft Shops (Regulation of Opening and Deliveries) (
Because this issue runs to the heart of our society it is necessary to look at it in a wider context, that of social and family cohesion.
A Unicef report (“An overview of child well-being in rich countries”) published in February this year placed British children at the bottom of the league of the 21 most developed nations, branding them the least well looked after, the worst behaved and the least happy.
Here in
Simple pleasures like watching a son play football, a daughter playing netball, that sense of a time shared together; “Quality time” all lost because due to competition pressures as their employer now has to open on Sunday to survive.
The second area is a much deeper one that runs through our society; a culture that puts money, performance, competition and consumerism at its heart. A society that thinks that if you sweep the streets you are a failure, yet our society needs such individuals as much as we need Doctors.
Deregulation of Sunday trading only feeds the habit of consumerism; an ethos based on owning things that says that the more things you have the more people will respect you. This attitude is corrosive and a legacy we don’t want to leave to our children.
There has to be a rethink, a reorientation of the values of our society and Jersey sitting at the crossroads has an opportunity here to take I believe a moral stance for the benefit of our
We can be different to the