Late and half finished

This is Friday's entry. The pressures of being a father have preventewd me from posting it until now, Sunday...

Well the Queen becomes 80 today, so happy birthday maam. I don't like the monarchy system in this country and certain members of the royal family I find perfectly revolting, but the Queen rarely upsets me. She keeps her nose out of politics and seldom does anything contraversial. She could of course turn round one day and refuse to give royal ascent to some democratically agreed legislation, and it bothers me, but if we can't have a republic, I'd say the Queen was a good choice of monarch.

It's been announced this week that the Queen is unlikely to ever abdicate and this sends all sorts of thoughts rushing round my head. Is she doing it to prevent her idiot son from taking the throne? Is she doing it because she genuinely believes that only God can decide when it's time for her to move on? Does she simply enjoy being the big cheese? She could go on another 10 or even 20 years, her mother did. Charles is already at an age when most people are thinking about retiring. That must really piss him off. Every cell in his body has been aching for the chance to play king for the last 50 years.

The government is about to review British laws in this country which limit Sunday trading to 6 hours - ABOUT BLOODY TIME! For those who don't know, we have ridiculously complicated legislation that prevents large stores from opening normal hours on Sunday. Small stores (no one can explain how to differentiate between large and small stores) can stay open all day on Sunday if they want. There are also certain days of the year which seem to be exempt from this legislation like Easter Sunday for instance. This all means that supermarkets all open at 10am and close at 4pm on Sunday, which is a real pain in the arse if you discover you need something urgently, like baby formula for instance, at 3:45 on Sunday afternoon.

The "Keep Sunday Special" Nazis have managed to hold the entire country to ransome, despite the fact that fewer than 10% of us actually attend a Christian church, for years. It finally looks as though things might change. Canon Roger Harper however, is intending to picket constituancy surgeries of the Trade and Industry secretary in an effort to keep trade restricted on Sundays. I want to make it perfectly clear that I don't think anyone should be forced to work on Sundays, and I really dont care what Canon Harper does with his weekend. I do however take exception to this idiot trying to dictate how I can spend my Sunday.