Sir: With continuing employment problems and a call, in the wake of recent events, for the preservation of the family unit, should we not be persuading employers to offer staff extra time off each week? This will allow hard-pressed individuals who see Sunday as their only opportunity to shop the time they require for this necessary activity as well as granting additional time in the home and enabling Sundays to be kept special.

Increasingly, people in all walks of life complain of the pressures on their time. For all of us, our happiness and efficiency are regulated in large part by the state of our relationships with others close to us. Now is the time to reverse the trend that tends to fill all our hours with frantic activity, usually at the expense of our relationship with those we love.

Yours faithfully,

JONATHAN PORTER GOFF

Willand, Devon

27 November