Shop staff deserve their own Jubilee holiday

SIR – I’m sure the whole country is looking forward to the extended bank holiday weekend to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee (report, May 26).

How greedy, then, that big retail corporations are not allowing their staff – who were often the ones bearing the brunt during the pandemic – to enjoy the extra day off with their families and communities.

Many shops are apparently planning to open as normal and are not even adhering to shortened Sunday hours. They should be brought to task and allow staff to enjoy this historic day.

Louise Meredith

Hathersage, Derbyshire

SIR – I have just found a book given to my late husband in June 1953, when he was 13, by Coventry City Council. It was presented to all the city’s schoolage children as a memento of the Queen’s Coronation.

Called Elizabeth Our Queen, it was produced by the great Richard Dimbleby. Inside is a note from the “Mayor’s Parlour” that says: “We citizens of Coventry, proud of our heritage, look forward, as Her Majesty’s loyal subjects, to a long and glorious reign, an era of greater progress for the people of our country, when those who are now children will play their part nobly and diligently in achieving peace and prosperity.”

I shall pass it on to my grandson when he attends our street party to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and “a long and glorious reign”.

Christine Upton

Folkestone, Kent

SIR – As my wife and I walked through Southwell recently, a workman was hanging bunting in preparation for the Jubilee celebrations. I asked whether the Union flags had been made in China. He checked, and replied with some surprise: “No. Made in Dublin.”

Mike Hames

Cradley, Herefordshire