SIR,—It would be unfortunate if the enormity of the provisions
of the Shops Bill at present before the House of Lords, and the disingenuouiness of the defence so far offered for them, were to stand in the way of a reform of the law which at present governs the hours during which retail shops may do business and the commodities they may sell outside what have come to be regarded as normal hours.
It is agreed that the law in these matters is disreputable—arbitrary, capricious and in conflict with current unobnoxious habits and desires. It is sufferable only on account of its imprecision. One of the alleged objects of the new Bill is `to bring the law into repute again': but the manner in which this laudable object is pursued is clearly self- defeating. To make the law more uniform, more precise and more easily enforcible is quite different from making it less disreputable; and the only effect of this Bill will be to impose precision and uniformity in• respect of even greater, more minute and less sufferable restrictions.
When the Bill was introduced it was said to be a Committee-stage Bill and that the amount of general principle was small. Nothing could be more false. What needs to be inquired into is not the reasonable- ness of the specific restrictions it seeks to impose, but the desirability of having any restrictions at all. And, if such an inquiry were in the hands of sober men, it is not difficult to forecast what its con- clusions would be.
It may be'expected that the provisions of this pre- eminently bureaucratic Bill (based upon the Report of a Committee which has nothing to say on the larger question and which is not only ten years out of date but also rich in primordial fantasy) will be recognised for what they are, the deplorable revela- tion of intelligence abused: and that they will provoke their appropriate Nemesis. They read like a neurotic headmistress's rules for the school tuckshop which make teachers and pupils alike feel ashamed and wish for the holidays. But it does not need this curious piece of legislative lunacy to call our atten- tion to the depravity of the current law : of that every schoolgirl who goes shopping for her mum is well aware. And it is to be hoped that in with- drawing from this new folly our legislators will not be content to leave things as thee are.—Yours faith fully,
16 New Row, WC2 MICHAEL OAKESHOTT
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