Express & Star

LETTER: Should shops shut to mark the centenary of the Armistice?

With just over 100 days to go until Remembrance Sunday which, by a one-off coincidence of timing, will coincide with the centenary of the First World War coming to an end, commemorative events will have even more poignancy.

Published
Should shops close as people pay their respects?

Yet, while the Government wants individual communities to mark the centenary of the Armistice, ministers have been less forthcoming on whether shops should shut for the day, as is customary on Easter Day, or whether it should be business as usual.

Remembrance Sunday this year coincides with the centenary of the Armistice when the Queen will lead the commemorations.

How should the country mark the anniversary?

There are now ex-military chiefs who believe that all shops, and other amenities, should stay firmly closed so past sacrifices can be marked by a national day of reflection.

Yet others will believe people should be free to spend the day as they choose.

Either way, there needs to be some clarity – perhaps half-day opening as a compromise – to avoid any possibility of acts of remembrance on this landmark day being disturbed, or interrupted, by those who might not understand, or appreciate, the occasion’s solemnity and meaning to all those who lost their forebears in battle.

Alan Davis

Darlaston