So I see there’s now a petition to force shops to shut on Boxing Day and do away with the sales. I’m not going to link to it.
Yes, you heard that right: a country with a productivity problem, sluggish growth, and a high dependency on temporary and seasonal workers (sources 1, 2 and 3) now has a contingent of morons who have seen a passing bus on Twitter or Facebook and gleefully jumped on board, ironically dressed in a Christmas jumper I presume. Probably the same people who cry at John Lewis adverts.
There’s nothing nice about reducing the hours a struggling family gets to work over the season just because middle-class middle-aged bourgeoisie types think it will be lovely.
There’s nothing nice about extending the period of time some families are effectively forced to be together. Did you know that the Monday after the Christmas holidays is the busiest for divorce lawyers?
And what about those who suffer domestic abuse and can use a trip out on Boxing Day as an excuse to get away?
There’s nothing nice about forcing a lonely person to endure two days of isolation rather than one. There’s nothing nice about not giving a depressed person opportunity and choice to go and divert themselves for a few hours.
There’s nothing nice about being so apparently generous to mostly seasonal retail workers and ignoring completely people like carers and social workers.
There’s nothing nice about trying to take away the free choices of business, of workers, of ordinary people, seemingly in the name of religious sentimentality or some rose-tinted perspective on the world.
There’s nothing nice about the complete failure of some people in our society to look at the bigger picture, and rush headlong, with knees jerking, in supporting the removal of choice in this whole process – the choice of where to work, when to work, where to shop, when to shop, the choice of how to spend your time and your money.
How about instead of closing the shops on Boxing Day we pass a law to shut down Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for the day?