Forget the new Olympic stadium; the best way to stimulate commerce is to lift restrictions against it.
For many Londoners, talk of an "Olympic stimulus" sounds like a bad euphemism for road blocks, security hassles and a £9.3 billion public-spending spree Britain can ill-afford. But in his budget speech today, Chancellor George Osborne is set to give London something to which it can honestly look forward: a suspension of Sunday-trading restrictions for the duration of the games.
"We've got the whole world coming to London and the rest of the country," Mr. Osborne told the BBC this weekend. "It would be a great shame—particularly when some of the big Olympic events are on Sunday—if the country had a closed-for-business sign on it."
The Chancellor's move would temporarily lift restrictions in the 1994 Sunday Trading Act, which allows "small" shops to trade all day but limits "large" shops to no more than six hours per Sunday, and only between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.
This was an improvement over the old Shops Act of 1950, according to which one could legally buy pornography on Sunday, but not a Bible. Shops could also sell as much candy, booze and cigarettes as customers could stomach, though no fresh meat or baby food. Razor blades could be bought and sold—but only for medical purposes such as lancing a boil, not for shaving.
It took a shopkeeper's daughter in Downing Street to push for deregulated Sundays. But despite public support, in 1986 Margaret Thatcher's initiative was blocked, partly by Labourites opposed to labor, partly by Conservatives who suddenly rediscovered the virtues of sabbath rest.
The 1994 compromise eradicated most of the inanities in England and Wales: Fish-and-chip shops may now not only open on Sundays—they can actually sell fish-and-chips. But the Sunday rules still pose plenty of headaches for shoppers seeking, say, a large drug store or supermarket after 6 p.m. And Scotland and Northern Ireland continue to have their own rules.
Mr. Osborne's call for full liberalization has met with the same resistance Mrs. Thatcher faced. Thus the Olympic (and Paralympic) experiment. With any luck, a few weeks of relaxed rules will persuade Britons that the best way to stimulate commerce isn't to build white-elephant stadiums, but simply to allow commerce of all kinds to flourish on any given Sunday.
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