Closed shop
I HAD been lunching in France on St Valen- tine's Day when I was hailed by a reader on the platform at Lille station. 'Backward lot, they are here,' he observed. 'Sunday, and not a shop open.' We would, I reflected, be even worse off in Germany, where the shops do not open on Saturday afternoons. Then the train arrived to take us back to what Down- ing Street would like us to call rip-off Britain. The message is that we poor customers are at the mercy of the greedy supermarkets, who would do us down at the drop of a loyalty voucher, and charge us more than we would pay on the Continent of Europe if the shops were open when we got there. Still, never fear, New Labour's here. Its consumer cham- pion of the week is Stephen Byers, now in the revolving chair at the Department of Trade and Industry and threatening fear- some penalties for price-fixers.
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