Last night exactly this happened. Don't take my word for it. Read the Guardian below: the reality is that this is all about Scottish politics, Holyrood elections, and who is really in charge between labour and the snp. Put to one side your views on the merits of having pilot projects for certain local authorities to pilot zoned extra hours on Sunday, particularly focused on businesses that are crying out for this, eg garden centres - and the hundreds of local authorities who made the case to government that this was a good idea for them to help their high streets. This from one of the hundreds who wrote in supporting the proposal:
"Councillor Bob Standley, Leader of Wealden District Council, added: “I support the proposal that decisions on shop Sunday opening hours should be devolved from Whitehall to local communities. Shops of all sizes are competing with 24/7 online trading and we need to encourage maximum use of the High Street. Wealden District Council’s Streets Ahead initiative puts the High Street at the heart of our communities and a more relaxed approach to Sunday trading hours will help those High Streets prosper.”
At the very least let us look at the case in pilot projects? This sounds utterly reasonable to me, and is what we voted upon, albeit there were clearly there were some concerns on the conservative side; it should be noted that the Liberal Party leader Nick Clegg and Norman Lamb both voted in favour. Labour of course was whipped to get behind the SNP.
And so the England and Wales MPs voted on a matter only affecting them, in favour. But the Scots Nats decided to be totally political, and vote against, even though it does not affect Scotland, and they have very liberal Sunday trading laws themselves, which work very well!!!
This from Michael White at the Guardian, hardly a Tory paper:
"Yes, I know, Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon said before the election that her flock would not vote on matters that did not affect Scotland. That ought to include Sunday opening hours because Scotland controls its own and has more relaxed rules.
During negotiations over Scotland’s block grant, the Barnett formula and other thorny financial matters, settled favourably for Sturgeon, UK ministers thought they had won an understanding that the SNP would steer clear of Wednesday’s vote. That is denied.
In any case, as she explained, Sturgeon changed her mind. This week her troops changed theirs over Sunday trading on the declared grounds that the change might undermine the “premium” protection given to Scots retail staff for working Sunday shifts."
You can draw you own conclusions as to what I think of the SNP. They cannot be trusted. They are doing all this solely for one reason - to be a wrecking ball.
