Politics
The House | Burnham should use ULEZ as inspiration for bold national clean air policy
4 min read
Seventy years on from the Clean Air Act, the incoming PM must put cleaner air at the heart of plans for economic growth.
It has been seven decades since Parliament passed the Clean Air Act in response to one of the worst public health crises in modern British history – the Great Smog. Since then, the legislation has saved thousands of lives.
But despite major progress on cleaning our air, today air pollution remains the largest environmental risk to public health in the UK. As well as damaging almost every organ in our body, poor air quality hits our economy hard, putting strain on health services and reducing productivity. That’s why, with Andy Burnham looking for bold ways to secure growth, cleaning our air must be a major part of the answer.
Action to secure cleaner air delivers profound benefits, and the UK has already taken the lead in some areas.
Witness the success of London’s ultra-low emissions zone (ULEZ), the world’s largest clean air zone. Recent research shows that between 2019 – when ULEZ was introduced – and 2024, estimated deaths associated with air pollution in London reduced by around 40 per cent.
Transformative policies like this can face opposition when first proposed, but public health outcomes are hard to argue with. Clean Air Zones in Bradford, Bristol, Birmingham and Sheffield have also shown their impact, with restricted-traffic zones leading to a reduction in cardiovascular disease and strokes.
Proven and affordable solutions to air pollution exist, but we need the political will to implement them. Clean air is beneficial for health and the environment, but is also good for economic development, too.
New research from CBI Economics finds that if the UK sees through its planned net zero policies, we will benefit hugely from cleaner air. We can secure a £7.7bn boost to our economy by 2050 through productivity gains as a result of improved health, reduced absences and longer working lives. Between 2011 and 2022, improvements in air quality accounted for around a third of labour productivity growth across the EU, according to OECD estimates.
In the UK, the CBI Economics report shows 38m additional working days could be returned to our economy by 2050. We would avoid 264,000 premature deaths and almost 500,000 hospital admissions. With an A&E admission costing between £114 – £563, this would mean major NHS savings.
Yet despite these enormous opportunities, the UK risks falling behind. We have far less ambitious air quality targets than the EU, and the UK isn’t in line with air quality guidelines from the World Health Organization (WHO). There are worrying signs that progress could be slowed further. Recent talk of the government weakening the UK’s 2030 electric vehicle sales targets would undermine one of the most important drivers of cleaner air and threaten the multiple benefits that stronger action could unlock.
As Burnham prepares to become PM, he has the opportunity to build on the leadership shown by some of our cities on clean air measures. What better way to signal that change in direction than introducing a new Clean Air Act with stronger legal limits for major pollutants, a commitment to accelerate the transition to zero emission vehicles, and clean heating for many more buildings.
With England having just sweltered through its hottest June on record, the importance of staying on track with the UK’s climate plans – a huge part of which means cleaner air for everyone – couldn’t be felt more acutely. Europe’s recent heatwaves triggered widespread ozone pollution episodes, with hundreds of monitoring stations exceeding the WHO’s ozone guideline. Indeed, heatwaves create a dangerous feedback loop; hotter temperatures produce more ozone, and ozone itself contributes to climate warming.
Burnham faces a huge array of pressures, but cleaning our air will enable him to address multiple interconnected areas. Given the economic, health, productivity and climate gains on offer, the case for action could not be simpler and clearer.
Jane Burston OBE is the CEO of Clean Air Fund
Gigantic inflatables of Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin puckering up drew attention during a Pride parade in the Netherlands this weekend.
Video shared online showed revelers dancing to electronic music aboard a boat taking part in Amsterdam’s WorldPride 2026 Canal Parade as the towering figures were inflated.
At first, the pair appeared to face off, each holding flowers behind their backs.
They were then moved together to create the illusion that they were kissing.
Those behind the installation, which was titled “The Kissing Couple,” said they did not want “to provoke, but to pause power for a moment and highlight something human.”
Trump has repeatedly praised Putin, who has overseen sweeping anti-LGBTQ+ laws in Russia. The duo has previously been depicted kissing, most notably in a street mural that appeared ahead of the 2016 election.
After two Wicked movies and multiple tours and albums, Ariana Grande is taking a well-deserved break from the public eye.
The Sweetener singer’s rep told People, “Ariana will be taking a step back from visibility after she completes the Eternal Sunshine Tour” after “endless, ongoing public scrutiny.”
The singer’s current tour is set to conclude in London next month.
She will also no longer take part in a London musical she had previously agreed to star in.
This comes days after the release of new album Petal, in which Ariana plays a performer who is told she’s “not good enough” and alternately informed she’s had too little or too much work done.
Ariana’s representative also told People that the singer and actor plans to end her tour “on a high note, both healthily and happily, and then taking a much-deserved break from public-facing work and appearances, which has led to endless, ongoing public scrutiny.”
The source told People that the new release is “a fight song, an anthem about the love-hate relationship with the public and their toxicity”.
Since its release, many have criticised Ariana’s physical appearance online, despite the singer’s previous objections to similar critiques.
In 2024’s Yes, And? she sang, “Don’t comment on my body, do not reply”, for instance.
The star’s rep added, “She performs a very physical show, and there is a lot of athleticism involved. She performs healthily and successfully at a very high level night after night.”
The 33-year-old was set to star alongside Jonathan Bailey in Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George as part of a 2027 Barbican production.
Speaking to the BBC, a representative for Empire Street Productions said: “Following this evening’s announcement from Ariana Grande’s team, we can confirm that she has decided to step back from Sunday in the Park with George.
“We know this cannot have been an easy decision, and she makes it with our complete understanding and support. We wish her nothing but the best.”
We don’t yet know who will replace Grande in the role.
A former Royal Navy commander has monstered Reform UK’s plan to use the military to return small boat migrants back to where they came from.
Tom Sharpe said the policy “starts to unravel quite quickly” and would not work.
Reform said it will launch “the largest military operation in the English Channel since World War Two” if it wins the next election.
Under “Project Fortress”, a joint military command with units from the Royal Navy, Royal Marines, RAF and British Army would be set up to track incoming boats and then send them back to France and Belgium.
But speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, Sharpe, said the Royal Navy no no longer had enough ships to carry out the mission.
The retired commander said: “There’s a notion that the Royal Navy could steam in over the horizon and fix this problem, which is declining slightly anyway.
“The reality, when you start looking at what ships we have, which is basically none.
“He’s talking about the largest maritime operation in the Channel since World War 2 – a very evocative image, but that’s not the reality. We don’t have the ships.
“And if you do bring your ships to bear, and you start investigating what exactly you’re going to do with them and where, it starts to unravel quite quickly.”
Sharpe said the UK Border Force was already equipped to do what Reform wants the military to achieve.
“A billion pound warship that’s configured for anti-air warfare or anti-submarine warfare, which are both threats to the UK, is not best used ferrying people around,” he said. “You’re better off using an actual ferry.”
He also queried whether France would agree to accept the small boats if they were turned back.
He said: “It needs their total approval, which I don’t think we’ll get. Brutally, why would we?”
Reform leader Nigel Farage and Zia Yusuf, the party’s home affairs spokesman, will outline the party’s policy at a press conference on Monday.
Yusuf said: “Nigel Farage will order His Majesty’s Royal Navy to ensure that not a single unauthorised vessel crossing the English Channel makes it to the shores of the United Kingdom.
“Those who attempt it will be intercepted by our Armed Forces and returned to France.”
But a Labour spokesman said: “Reform have reheated an old announcement in their latest desperate bid to distract from their growing sleaze scandals.”
Listen to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.
©Alamy.Cheese Scientist
Dame Prue Leith is a writer, broadcaster, entrepreneur and campaigner who has become one of the most recognisable faces on British television. As part of our Women in Westminster series, we sat down with Dame Prue to talk about both living and dying well
Any discussion with Dame Prue Leith moves at a breathless pace. Over the course of our sit-down conversation, we travel from apartheid-era South Africa to the Sorbonne in the early 1960s, and on to her current campaign for the right to a dignified death in later life.
It feels that Leith has crammed the contents of several lifetimes into one. Born in South Africa, Leith tells us that her upbringing was in many respects one of privilege. However, she adds that history teaches us that privilege can sometimes be an enabler for driving change rather than an obstacle to it.
“It’s interesting how often female heroes come from the educated middle classes or upper classes,” she tells us. “Because they’re the people who had the time and the leisure and the education to realise how they could change things.”
She points to the example provided by her own mother, South African actor Margaret Inglis. Leith has clear memories of her, along with other middle-class women, actively protesting against the inequities of the apartheid state.
“I remember my mother coming home one day and she was wearing a black coat,” she remembers. “It was winter, and it was covered in egg yolk because she’d been on the town hall steps and pro-apartheid morons have been throwing eggs at them.”
For any interviewer, getting Leith to open up is not difficult. She clearly relishes recounting elements of what is, by any standards, a remarkable life.
“First of all, I’m a complete blabbermouth,” she laughs. “I’ll tell anybody anything. I think I embarrass my family sometimes. I remember when I wrote my most recent book, and I gave a copy to my son. He said, ‘ Oh my God, mum, not more revelations, please’.”
It is that openness, and Leith’s ability to connect with different audiences, that has led to her becoming one of the best-known broadcasters in the UK. You get the sense that for Leith, speaking out is itself an act of liberation. That was not always the case. During her childhood in South Africa, she remembers that there were many conversational topics that were firmly off limits.
“When I was young, there were things you didn’t talk about at dinner. You didn’t talk about politics. You didn’t talk about sex. You didn’t talk about money. You didn’t talk about food,” she says. “God knows what you did talk about. Those are the interesting things. There’s nothing left.”
Leith’s willingness to step into areas where conversations may previously have been off-limits is a quality that has encouraged the broadcaster to speak out in recent years in support of assisted dying. She is a patron of Dignity in Dying, an organisation campaigning to allow everyone the right to a good death. It is a cause that she became passionate about after watching her brother, David, suffering with terminal bone cancer on a hospital ward.
“Sometimes he would be begging, crying, screaming,” she recalls. “I remember once him absolutely yelping. It’s very unpleasant for everybody else in the ward. And it’s horrible for the nurses, and they’re powerless to do anything about it.”
That experience led to Leith joining other voices in pressing for a change to the law to allow terminally ill people more choice at the end of their lives.
Leith is now 86. I ask her whether her own death is something she contemplates more as she gets older.
“Oh, of course,” she says. “Everybody does. I don’t fear death. I certainly don’t welcome it. You know, I don’t want to die, but I do want to be able to die if I find life intolerable.”
That option is currently not available to Leith or indeed to anyone else seeking choice at the end of their lives. Recent legislation to allow assisted dying failed to clear the House of Lords after some peers used procedural devices to slow its progression. Leith tells us that she is angry at the way that happened, describing the behaviour of some peers as “disgraceful.”
“It actually brings the House of Lords into disrepute,” she says. “The reason that a bill goes to the Lords is that they’re supposed to scrutinise it and improve it. They are not meant to bury it under over a thousand amendments. They let the side down. But it’s coming back, and I think it might get through. It’s time.”
Leith remains optimistic that the weight of public support behind a change to the law means that it will eventually happen. She tells us that such a change is desperately needed, despite the efforts of the bill’s opponents, who include her own son, Reform MP Danny Kruger.
“He really leads the anti-assisted dying crowd, which is a bit ironic,” she tells us. “But I have got him to admit that if it’s legal, he will hold my hand when my time comes. He said, if it’s illegal, and I still do it, he’ll have to look the other way.”
That exchange typifies Leith. She is a woman who has spent a lifetime refusing to avoid difficult conversations. Whether campaigning for better school food or for greater choice at the end of life, her instinct is always to confront difficult subjects honestly and openly.
“Nearly everything that I’ve got involved with has been because of personal experience,” she says. “Just feeling, ‘This is wrong, somebody should do something about it.’ And because I’m a bossy woman, it tends to occur to me that I could do something about it.”
Reform UK have been mocked over a “reheated” plan to use the Royal Navy to turn back migrants coming to the UK in small boats.
The right-wing party said it will launch “the largest military operation in the English Channel since World War Two” if it wins the next election.
But Labour pointed out that Reform leader Nigel Farage had already announced the plan earlier this year.
They said it was only being highlighted again to distract from the ongoing controversy over Farage’s financial affairs.
Farage and Reform home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf will unveil the so-called “Operation Fortress” policy at a press conference on Monday.
It would see a Reform government set up a joint military command with units from the Royal Navy, Royal Marines, RAF and British Army to track incoming boats and then send them back to France and Belgium.
Yusuf said: “Britain is being invaded. Tory and Labour governments responded with a free ferry service and free hotels.
“Reform UK will respond by launching the largest military operation in the English Channel since World War Two.
“Nigel Farage will order His Majesty’s Royal Navy to ensure that not a single unauthorised vessel crossing the English Channel makes it to the shores of the United Kingdom.
“Those who attempt it will be intercepted by our Armed Forces and returned to France.”
But a Labour spokesman said: “Reform have reheated an old announcement in their latest desperate bid to distract from their growing sleaze scandals.
“Anger and easy answers won’t bring crossings down. The serious action we’ve taken have started to have a real impact and has led to 46,000 attempted crossings stopped, and 70,000 people with no right to be here removed.
“We know there’s more to do on this complex issue.
“What is far less complicated is Nigel Farage’s brazen attempts to dodge scrutiny over his secret £5 million gift from a crypto billionaire. It’s time he stopped the distraction tactics and came clean with the public.”
Prime minister Andy Burnham yesterday pledged to be “relentless” in his attempts to stop the small boat crossings.
Listen to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.
Rupert Lowe has offered his former colleague Nigel Farage an alliance to unite the right.
The leader of Restore Britain, a far-right splinter group which formed after Lowe was kicked out of Reform UK, suggested it was time for the two rivals to “put our differences aside” in a public address.
It comes after the right-wing vote was split in the Greater Manchester mayoral contest, leading to Labour candidate Bev Craig’s victory.
Reform’s Sian Astley finished second with 111,928 votes while Restore’s Marlon West finished fourth with 46,289 votes in the first round.
In a video statement on X, Lowe said this result “showed what Restore Britain can deliver”, and suggested they work together to defeat the left-wing.
He said: “Nigel, my message is simple. If you are prepared to work together around serious policies, serious reform, and serious government, then so are we.
“Millions of British people deserve a patriotic government to put our national interest before any personal differences that you and I may have…
“Now is the time to put our differences aside and cooperate for the good of the country that we all love.”
However, he said any deal relied on several key conditions Reform must agree to.
That included a call for mass deportations to “reverse” mass immigration, restoring the “demographic security” for so-called native Brits and tackling the rise of Islamism by banning the burka.
He also called for a referendum on the death penalty and urged Reform to restore a “self-sufficient Britain” by cutting welfare.
His olive branch comes after Reform started to slump in the polls against Labour, amid growing scrutiny over Farage’s finances and Andy Burnham’s takeover of the government.
The Reform UK leader is currently fighting a by-election in Clacton which he triggered last month.
He decided to start a “people versus the establishment” contest following a sleaze probe into a £5 million donation which he failed to register with parliament.
Farage later issued a lengthy statement on X which appeared to respond to Lowe on Sunday.
He said: “Only one party truly has the possibility of delivering change.
“To deliver that change, I understand Reform UK will need the support of people from other parties, as well as millions who have never voted before.
“That is the broad coalition I am building.”
He added that Reform “will always be open to anyone who shares our commitment to restoring Britain’s borders, rebuilding our economy, renewing our democracy and putting the British people first.”
He promised to “put country before party but insisted “I will never turn my back on my team”.
He said: “There will always be a home in Reform UK for those who believe that 14 years of Conservative government, followed by the last 2 years of Labour, have failed the British people… and that our country now needs a fundamentally different direction.
“I will continue to do whatever is necessary to defeat the left and provide Britain with the strong, serious leadership it deserves.
“This is the last chance for our country, and we cannot afford to waste it.”
Listen to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.
Andy Burnham has promised his government will be “relentless” in curbing how many people arrive in the UK on small boats.
Speaking from Dover, the prime minister said the number of English Channel crossings are down by 50% this year compared to the same period in 2025.
“The month we’ve just had in July has been the lowest number for six years,” he said. “So clearly progress has been made.
“But we’re not complacent, that’s why I’m here, it’s why I’ve come down on Sunday to see the team, to listen to what they think needs to be done, what further can be done.
“We’re just going to be relentless.”
He promised the government was “changing the whole approach” by putting enforcement officers on either side of the Channel to tackle people-smuggling gangs.
He made it clear that Labour would also look to build more safe routes for asylum seekers to come to the UK.
“That also takes away the selling points of the gangs. So on every level we’ve got to come at this, but crucially increasing the enforcement activity,” he said.
“So there’s been a doubling of officers through the National Crime Agency on the UK side of the Channel and French officers are now similarly doubled in number working on the beaches over there.”
The Home Office announced the number of NCA officers tackling smuggling gangs had risen to almost 800 from 376 at the start of 2025.
Concerns over illegal migration have grown after tens of thousands of migrants swam into the Spanish exclave of Ceuta last week.
The prime minister acknowledged that 98% of those people have already been returned to Morocco.
But he added: “There’s a broader issue about the Schengen area and our relationship with it, and of course, I would want to be in regular dialogue with the EU on those issues.”
Burnham has been criticised by his right-wing opponents for not focusing on the matter during his first fortnight in power.
More than 2,000 migrants have arrived on small boats since he got the keys to No.10 on July 20.
But the PM said he wants to “deal with the issue rather than play politics with the issue”.
He added: “The public don’t like the idea that the border looks like it’s not controlled. We need to bring back that control. But also we need to offer support for people who genuinely need it.”
Listen to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.
People have criticised generative AI for the many ways in which it’s corrupting what it means to be human. The latest example of this comes from OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman.
What if you just talked to your children
— Alex Hirsch (@_AlexHirsch) July 31, 2026
OpenAI…
Young people today are growing up at a time when they can use generative AI to do their assignments for them. Workers can use AI to write their emails. Half of what you read online could be written by AI. In other words, we live in a world in which human communication is increasingly devoid of the human element.
As such, it’s unsurprising people have reacted to Altman with messages like the following from BuccoCapital Bloke:
Over the next few years you are going to have to fight with everything you’ve got to retain your humanity. They will try to convince you to give up connecting with each other, to give up truly being alive. It will be the most important fight of your whole life
Helen Lewis wrote:
I’m in awe of how sociopathic this comes off. What if I… actually enjoy talking to my family about their lives and interests?
Dylan Dittrich commented:
“Cool use case of chatgpt” and it’s just the worst, most dehumanizing idea you’ve ever heard.
Some responded sarcastically, including the Wild Geerters account:
Seems like a lot of hassle. A cool idea would be to replace the kids with AI chatbot kids and then have chatgpt talk to the chatbot kids on the drive, and maybe let AI drive the car while you chill at home watching an AI generated movie about a guy driving his kids to school
Jathan Sadowski remarked:
Telling my child to stop talking because I’m listening to the AI podcast about their soccer game and upcoming birthday.
Let’s stay human everyone
Despite claims to the contrary, generative AI is not an intelligent technology, and it seems unlikely it ever will be. That doesn’t mean it can’t act as a substitute for human interaction, though, and the threat to what that could mean for society is grave.
Be sure to speak to your children and loved ones and be grateful for the opportunity to do so.
Featured image via EPA/ BBC
By Willem Moore
The US has dropped a 2,000-pound bomb on the home of an Iranian family on Qeshm Island, murdering a two-year-old and his parents. Two other children were pulled from the rubble alive.
The U.S. dropped a 2,000-pound bomb on an Iranian family’s home this week on Qeshm Island, killing a 2-year-old and his parents.
Barbaric savagery by soulless ghouls. pic.twitter.com/n4EfzZsxIG
— Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) August 1, 2026
The US attacked the residedential area of Iran overnight on Thursday 30 July.
According to the New York Times, the size of the crater and weapon fragments suggest that the bomb was a 2,000-pound Mark-84. This is one of the US military’s largest conventional bombs.
Additionally, the location and time of the strikes are consistent with where the US military was operating at the time.
US has created a pattern of destruction
Of course, this is part of a pattern.
For years, Israel, funded by the US, has dropped 2,000-pound American bombs on Gaza, in an attempt to systematically wipe out Palestinians, including refugees in tents.
2,000-pound Mark 84 bomb was what Biden-Harris sent to lsrael on a regular basis to kill and flatten Gaza in their genocidal campaign. https://t.co/aTIoTr2A5k
— CanCanGirl&TobyBear
(@ApricotForever) August 1, 2026
Both the Trump and Biden regimes green-lighted it.
Now, the US is doing the same to Iran.
For years, Israel was using 2,000lb American bombs to kill Gazan refugees in tents. Both the Biden and Trump administrations permitted it.
A precedent was set.
Now it appears the US is doing the same in Iran.
A 2000lb bomb was dropped on a family house in Qeshm, killing a taxi…
— Trita Parsi (@tparsi) August 1, 2026
During the first month of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, Israel dropped hundreds of these bombs. Many of them are capable of killing or wounding people more than 1,000 feet away.
At the time, satellite images revealed more than 500 impact craters over 12 metres in diameter. This is consistent with those left behind by 2,000-pound bombs.
The U.S. should be held accountable for these war crimes https://t.co/hsrFKxcWCY
— Ray Jackson (@RayJackson123) August 2, 2026
International humanitarian law dictates that militaries should take “all feasible precautions” to minimise civilian harm. Of course, that means not attacking innocent civilians.
“The choice to use that type of munition in such a densely populated area is “very difficult to reconcile with” https://t.co/2zu3d2utPE
— Reem Rifai (@ReemRifai_) August 1, 2026
But the US and Israel have never cared about the lives of Palestinian, Lebanese, or Iranian families. They are rogue terrorist states, and as long as the world continues to whitewash their crimes, they will continue destroying, bombing and murdering the people of West Asia.
On Thursday, an airstrike killed 3 a mom, a dad, and their 2-year-old son on Qeshm Island in southern Iran.
Our visual investigation (drawing on photos/videos from the site, satellite imagery, weapon fragments, and a crater size estimate, analyzed by weapons experts… pic.twitter.com/54xGryP0CI
— Christiaan Triebert (@trbrtc) August 1, 2026
Feature image via New York Times
By HG
Of all the self-help videos that sneak into my algorithm, the ‘Sunday Reset’ is my favourite. In a kind of tribute to Marie Kondo, a Japanese ‘organising consultant’, glamorous influencers manage to make loading the dishwasher and meal prep look aspirational. My Sunday follows a similar, if slightly less aesthetic, formula: three loads of washing, the weekly shop and off to Mass. My Catholic identity is a significant part of my life and so Sunday Mass is an important part of my routine – it gives me time to reflect and think. It tethers my week to something constant and reassuring.
As Christians, we’re taught to ‘keep holy the sabbath’. Although I’m sure theologians will have more to say on this, I have never felt guilty going straight from morning Mass to Lidl. Growing up in Scotland, it’s not something I’d ever thought about. There we can’t buy alcohol until after 10pm, sure, but the shops open whenever they want for everything else.
When I moved down south, I thought it was odd, and annoying, that the big Lidl near me had very different opening hours from the wee Tesco. When I learned the real reason – that the law demands shops over 280 square metres can only open for six consecutive hours between 10am and 6pm – I was baffled. Even more so when I discovered that, in 2016, there were many Scottish MPs who voted against the easing of England and Wales’ Sunday restrictions.
There is no coherent reason for the rules to remain as they are. When you consider that the rules only apply to shops over a certain (arbitrary) size and that even those larger shops are allowed to open for some of the day, the idea that they are doing anything to keep Sunday special is ludicrous. There are no similar restrictions on any other kind of Sunday activity. Making the Sunday shopping experience inconvenient is doing nothing to protect our immortal souls.
Most people in the UK have the same two days off: Saturday and Sunday. How they spend their time over the weekend depends on their priorities. The state should not be infringing on the British people’s rights to enjoy their Sunday. In any case, for people who do prefer a slow Sunday, there would be nothing compelling them to change.
For retail staff, the truth is that even when these larger retail shops are closed, they don’t automatically get the evening off. There are hundreds of tasks to be done when the doors of the shop are locked. Restocking shelves, tidying the storeroom, refolding knitwear, marking down prices – the law doesn’t prohibit the shop from scheduling shifts for staff, only from serving customers.
That aside, why should retail workers be compelled to have Sunday evenings off? Hospitality endures no such restriction. Taxi drivers, hairdressers, public-transport staff, pilots, nail technicians – none of these professions has special rules. They are allowed to make decisions about their schedules that suit them. There are plenty of reasons people are happy to work on Sundays: teenagers and students looking for weekend jobs, or people who prefer shift work to match their spouse’s schedule.
The government’s own figures show that the repeal of these laws could generate up to £1.4 billion annually for the UK economy. It would open up thousands of work hours for people who would be happy to work weekend shifts. Given the rate of unemployment among young people, the government should consider this a gift.
Retail workers and shoppers are adults. They should be allowed to make decisions that are best for them. An absence of Sunday restrictions in Scotland has not ushered in a new golden age of retail. But it has opened more jobs, created flexibility in rotas and relieved some packed-lunch-related stress.
If keeping holy the sabbath isn’t possible from inside a Tesco larger than 280 square metres before 11am, then that’s a conversation for me and my maker, not for the government.
Lucy Rogers is the head of community at Looking for Growth, the political movement to end decline and save Britain.
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