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Confident Consumers

I probably did not explain my original point fully—I was talking about the customer, not the company. Assaults on shop workers are, I hope, rarely done by their employer; it is not a good motivational technique in the modern world. [Laughter.] We certainly know of cases in which shop workers have been assaulted by irate customers, and all of us have probably been irate customers from time to time, but that is not an excuse to subject those who provide such service to physical or verbal abuse. The hon. Gentleman makes a credible point; there is a strong role for companies in recognising that the provision of high-quality service, which requires highly motivated, well-trained staff, is also in the corporate interest. The best companies do exactly that, and we hope that that spreads throughout industry. Finally, I want to refer to the debate about the consultation on Sunday trading. My right hon. Friend the Minister, who is new to his job, must take a dispassionate, neutral attitude. However, I do not feel that I must be neutral or dispassionate. We altered the laws on Sunday trading only 12 years ago. At the time, a compromise was struck between those who argued from different perspectives, ranging from those who wanted no Sunday trading whatever to those who wanted total deregulation. That compromise recognised the different feelings in society. Of course, society is not static, so there is no inevitability that we will stay where we are for ever. Not enough has changed in those 12 years, however, to alter that fundamental compromise.