"The impotence of legislation in this field was demonstrated when the Sale of Beer Act 1854 which restricted Sunday opening hours had to be repealed, following widespread rioting. In 1859 a prototype prohibition bill was overwhelmingly defeated in the House of Commons"
Sorry about this but I'm feeling quite teary eyed and patriotic for some strange reason....
Rule Britannia!
Britannia rule the waves
Britons never, never, never shall be slaves!
What you're referring to is known as "Blue Law(s)."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_lawThe idea of prohibiting sale of alcohol (but not limited to just alcohol) on religious grounds. In spite of the religious freedom in the US, the favouritism given to certain Protestant denominations in certain states (e.g. Baptist faith in Texas) has led to the passage of Blue Laws on a State by State basis. Surprisingly that went unchallenged by the Federal Govt. (typically by way of the US Federal Court system), even after prohibition ended.
I remember around 1976 my grandparents and I were on a trip, right here in the city where I am now, as we flew from Mexico City every summer and visited family in the US. We were buying food at a local supermarket to take back to the hotel, and this happened to be a Sunday.
I was trying to convince my grandparents to purchase a little die cast toy jet airplane at the supermarket. When we arrived at the cash register, the cashier told us that because of the Texas Blue Laws, she could not sell anything that was not food! She hurriedly snuck the airplane under a bag and charged us the amount promising not to tell her manager (back in the days when cash registers were only mechanical registers without bar codes). Thereafter we became very concious of Texas Blue laws.
By the 1980's the Blue laws had been amended and you could buy non-food items on Sunday, but I remember back in 1993, when I was (ironically) a cashier at the local supermarket, that we still had restrictions on the hours we could sell alcohol during the weekend. Sales were legal only during daytime, if I remember correctly. Today you can buy anything you want any day of the week, but alcohol still can't be purchased after midnight (pubs will serve until 1 AM).
Sad thing is you can still see local legislatures in some states trying to pass reactionary laws today, mostly on religious grounds. Anything to reverse progress by say, 50 years at least, if not more. But I guess this is a topic for the Queer Geer thread, and in danger of becoming a political discussion.
