It is bad enough to make Sunday the same as a working day in every week and now John Orgar (Letters, January 4) thinks it clever to make Christmas Day the same as the other 364, with all shops open.

It must be remembered December 25 is a public holiday and a religious festival day of the Church of England. We are still England, are we not?

Even in the First World War, they were prudent enough to stop fighting for one day.

It really gets on my wick that folks go abroad and criticise this country, yet their home address remains in Sussex.

If they find living abroad so sensational, why don't they close up shop and move on to never-never land?

-Roy Hilliard, Old Shoreham Road, Brighton