Illegal to open yesterday? (Good Friday)

**oldrider** · 15th April 2006, 18:11

Originally Posted by Ixion

Coming back to the original argument, that people should not have a day's holiday on Good Friday because it is a "religious day". A lot of rides are held on Sundays. Because, most of you (not all) have a holiday on Sundays. How come , then, because that holiday, Sunday , is also a "religious " day. "Six days shalt thou labour, but the seventh thou shalt hold holy"

Grab the holiday that's going , bugger why it's given. Just don't argue to deny others what you yourself are enjoying, a day of leisure.

And say a special "thank you" to those whose jobs are so essential that they cannot have the day off. And that should be limited to those who really are indispensable.

You are spinning your wheels on this one Ixion, can't have it both ways.

It is not the Christians that make the day a holiday anymore it is the government! (influenced by votes)
It's a statutory holiday and they (the government) decree the conditions not the churches.
You want to change it, lobby the government, they are the only ones who can or will but only if there are votes in it for them!
I am a Christian but I want freedom to choose not to be dictated to by anyone!
Open the bloody shops 24 hours a day seven days a week if they want to do it, that's between them and their customers. Stupid bloody laws!
Stop blaming religion for what may well have been of their making but is not their fault that the law remains, it is the legislators. "Parliament" damn it!
Who changed the homo and prostitution laws? the bloody politicians not the churches, they were against it so who is at fault over the shopping laws on good Friday of Easter? the bloody politicians and ultimately "you".
If you don't like it be more careful with your votes next time.
National wont change them either, I doubt if any of the current crop on offer will either, too left wing!
Freedom and individual responsibility with real consequence for getting it right or wrong that's what I want not these Lilly livered PC do-gooder piss weak left wing bastards we have got now! Rant rant rant, Shheeeesh. :slap: John.

**Winston001** · 15th April 2006, 21:54

Personally I can live with no trading on Easter Friday. Hell, it's not that many years ago that shops weren't open at all on weekends. We just made sure we had what we needed by the end of the week.

However, I can't see us going back and the present ludicrous situation where shops in one area are open, but closed in another area cannot continue. So open all hours on Friday as well.

Religious people will still observe this sacred day whatever anyone else does.

**Ixion** · 15th April 2006, 22:17

Originally Posted by oldrider

You are spinning your wheels on this one Ixion, can't have it both ways.

It is not the Christians that make the day a holiday anymore it is the government! (influenced by votes)
It's a statutory holiday and they (the government) decree the conditions not the churches.
You want to change it, lobby the government, they are the only ones who can or will but only if there are votes in it for them!
I am a Christian but I want freedom to choose not to be dictated to by anyone!
Open the bloody shops 24 hours a day seven days a week if they want to do it, that's between them and their customers. Stupid bloody laws!
Stop blaming religion for what may well have been of their making but is not their fault that the law remains, it is the legislators. "Parliament" damn it!
,,
Freedom and individual responsibility with real consequence for getting it right or wrong that's what I want not these Lilly livered PC do-gooder piss weak left wing bastards we have got now! Rant rant rant, Shheeeesh. :slap: John.

Me, I don't care at all if they open or not. So long as I get MY day off.

But the thing is it is NOT "just between the shop and the customer", because the other people in the loop are the shop workers, who are forced to work whether they want to or not. You say you want freedom to choose, but you will happily deny that same freedom to those workers?

If all shop were run by the shopkeepers, with no staff, I wouldn't care less about them opening. But reality is they're not, they're corporates, and the person making the decision to open is not the one who will be behind the counter.

Be careful what you wish for, you never know , you might find the "Lilly livered PC do-gooder piss weak (not actually left wing at all) left wing bastards" replaced by REAL left wing bastards, not at all do gooder or PC, and bloody minded , machine gun happy , nationalise the lot bastards to boot. Like me.

You would remember the 51 waterfront strike? Now those were REAL left wing bastards. Though I'll grant you the lilly livered, they weren't game to make it into a shooting war with the specials . I asked Jock Barnes once if he regretted that, he wouldn't answer. Me, I'd have got the Soviets to run in a shipload of guns and ammo (they'd have done it) and given it a go. Lucky I wasn't old enough , wasn't it. (Jock did admit that they missed their chance in '31 when they might have been able to pull off a revolution. Pity)

**Cookie** · 15th April 2006, 22:26

Originally Posted by Ixion

[...]Me, I'd have got the Soviets to run in a shipload of guns and ammo (they'd have done it) and given it a go. [...]

Please tell me this is a PT Ixion!

**Drunken Monkey** · 15th April 2006, 22:55

Originally Posted by Ixion

.. But reality is they're not, they're corporates, and the person making the decision to open is not the one who will be behind the counter.

More garbage. Are you high today or something?

"The vast majority of New Zealand’s retail outlets are owned independently and operated by their owners."
(Source: New Zealand Retailer's Association)

That's good old fashioned "Mom & Pop" (sorry, "Mum and Dad") owner operaters, not corporates.

**Ixion** · 15th April 2006, 23:12

Go take a ride along the Mt Wellington Highway. Tell me how many of the shops you see are run by Mom and Pop. And how many obviously are not. There's the dairy opposite the school, that's about it. (technically, I think each McDonalds is run by its "owner" since they are franchises. Hardly Mom and Pop though.)

**Timber020** · 15th April 2006, 23:49

Originally Posted by Ixion

Me, I don't care at all if they open or not. So long as I get MY day off.

But the thing is it is NOT "just between the shop and the customer", because the other people in the loop are the shop workers, who are forced to work whether they want to or not. You say you want freedom to choose, but you will happily deny that same freedom to those workers?

If all shop were run by the shopkeepers, with no staff, I wouldn't care less about them opening. But reality is they're not, they're corporates, and the person making the decision to open is not the one who will be behind the counter.

)

I agree, the owners of the shops etc will have the day off with their family while their staff get to do yet another shift. This day off means alot to many people, I wouldnt fuck with it as dont we do enough hours for little enough money?
I have worked some pretty shitty jobs, I have averaged 96 hours a week without so much as a half day off in a month (my record is something like 120 hours in one week, lucky me being an insomniac anyhow). another paid less than $3 an hour and gave a weekend off only once a month. I could go on but the general idea is that alot of people dont get alot of choice or chance with what they do.
Im now self employed, hire others and can afford a few more toys, but I havent forgotten what its like to do the dangerous, dirty, uncomfortable,undesirable, underpaid jobs in this world. And we should forget those who do those jobs.

**Motu** · 15th April 2006, 23:53

Or go to a mall,all the kids in those stores are part timers,they work only just under full time hours,have no rights,they are told what hours they will work,and on what days they will work.My daughter couldn't come home to spend Easter with her family because she had to work in a shop owned by a multinational corperation.

Actualy I tell a lie,she spent the day in hospital looking after her boyfriend who colapsed behind the wheel of his car.So she gets no pay and a black mark,when they need the money.Poor kids are working 3 or 4 part time jobs each and can't get out of the rut.

Bring back the unions with some teeth,a good national strike would wake us up.

**Ixion** · 16th April 2006, 00:06

Exactly so. Retail workers are dreadfully exploited. The whole "part time" thing is a total rort, used by the employers to evade what little rights the workers in theory (and in theory only) have.

Which is why it annoys me to see people , themselves enjoying a day off, begruge the poor shop assistants one also. In practice there's few enough would get it, the employers being expert at wriggling out of paying for it (only entitled if it is a day you would normally be scheduled - drive a horse and cart through that loophole).

At least in our day the old hands and delegates would look out for the young ones and apprentices and see that they weren't totally taken advantage of - 'twas tough, but there was a respect there that is gone now. The American idea has taken over where workers are treated as a disposable commodity.

And we had Family Benefit capitalisation, and State Advances loans , and full employment . How a lot of kids today are ever supposed to get their home I'm damned if I know.

**Ixion** · 16th April 2006, 00:08

Originally Posted by Cookie

Please tell me this is a PT Ixion!

D'you think a Communist would take the piss about something like that ?

**oldrider** · 16th April 2006, 01:06

Ixion, the countries that share your ideals were held together by the glue of the gun and still they failed! It just doesn't work!

Most have turned to Capitalism and democracy to try and save their sorry arses but are struggling because they were so far behind the western world.

Who is forcing people to work on statutory holidays? There is no law that says they must work, they have a choice! Hobson's choice it may well be in some circumstances, I agree!

They are free to stay or go as far as the law of the country goes but they may be influenced by their own personal circumstances that is a different matter all together. They are still legally free to choose.

I worked shift work for almost thirty years, because it suited me and it suited my employer but I had to pay compulsory Union fees to a useless union that I did not want to belong to!

Besides the direct tax (Theft by force) by the government, the only other thing I was forced to pay was the indirect tax comprising of compulsory Union fees. (Stolen through govt legislation backing their Union friends)

Communism and it's diluted cousin socialism have almost nothing to offer anyone who places any value on the rights and freedom of the individual In my honest opinion.

I do agree that there are some very poor, even very bad managers in New Zealand industry but look how many employees have less than desirable attitudes in this country.

It's not something we as a nation can be proud of but we are free to speak out and do something about it if we want to but generally we prefer to exercise our right to moan in preference to taking action!

**Lias** · 16th April 2006, 11:21

NZ is a christian country, as of the 2001 census (2006 figures not available yet that I can see), 2,043,840 out of 3,468,813 were still christian. Given that the communists in the labour party have been steadily undermining the moral fabric of NZ, and attempting to destroy the nuclear christian family for decades thats still a pretty substanial majority of the country.

NZ has religious tolerance, and other faiths are welcome to practise here, but they need to accept that NZ is a christian based country, and will still be for a long time yet. And no I'm not a practising bible basher.. I just think you cunts ar e looking at this all wrong.

**oldrider** · 16th April 2006, 12:03

Originally Posted by Lias

NZ is a christian country, as of the 2001 census (2006 figures not available yet that I can see), 2,043,840 out of 3,468,813 were still christian. Given that the communists in the labour party have been steadily undermining the moral fabric of NZ, and attempting to destroy the nuclear christian family for decades thats still a pretty substanial majority of the country.

NZ has religious tolerance, and other faiths are welcome to practise here, but they need to accept that NZ is a christian based country, and will still be for a long time yet. And no I'm not a practising bible basher.. I just think you cunts ar e looking at this all wrong.

You can think what you like and say what you like and do what you like within the law!

So can Ixion and all the rest of us!

I am prepared to defend your rights to that, whatever it takes.

I put myself down as one of those Christians in the census after thinking long and hard I could not bring myself to deny it.

The Christians do not make the law the politicians do.

Easter Friday and Monday are statutory holidays, Christians just observe it religiously.

The rest can do what "they" want to do except laws made by "politicians" dictate what they can and can't do. That is the problem!

I do admit it is a hang-up from when religion was too ensconced into politics in this country but hey, lets move on!!

**Beemer** · 16th April 2006, 12:14

Well, the shops being closed Friday and today did have one benefit - if they had been open today I wouldn't have rushed back into Levin yesterday afternoon and discovered two Swedish tourists on a broken bike!

But I am annoyed at the double-standards - why are SOME tourist areas allowed to open and yet not others? Why can you buy food but not grog?

As for shop assistants not having a choice, yes, they can NOT work in retail. I did it for years, thankfully before there was seven-day-a-week trading, but I don't work in retail now precisely because I am not prepared to work on weekends and public holidays. Retail isn't the only career option open to the young...

But having said that, I don't have a problem with the shops not being open EVERY day of the year, I just get irritated trying to work out what is open when and for how long. At least I have plenty of alcohol!