So much for Saudi women setting the reform agenda!Despite Judith Brown’s comparisons with Victorian England, Saudi women do not live in the past. Nor is it valid to compare Riyadh in 2003 with Victorian London. Saudi Arabia has pretensions to being a modern and enlightened state. I don’t recognise them.Millions of Saudi women – 95 per cent of whom are unemployed – are screaming for basic rights, aware that even in comparison with other Gulf states, they are isolated and disenfranchised. Increasingly contracts of employment are eroding their entitlements to additional payments for working at weekends and unsociable hours. The proposed legislation will at least protect our most vulnerable workers from unscrupulous employers on one day a year.DAVID NUTTALL Maidstone, Kent Saudi women Sir: Judith Brown (letter, 20 October) claims to have Saudi women friends who are happy to return to Saudi Arabia and push for improvements when “the time is right”. It can be dead and unpleasant for those left on the outside, painful for those with no family and those who have lost family members – and sometimes stressful for those with families too.

Every year, sadly, I hear more people say that they hate Christmas. Most shop workers have little choice as to when they do or do not work. Why should it be forced on them? Why, in particular, should it be forced on people from other faith communities?ADRIAN WEST London N21Sir: Your leading article “The right to shop” (20 October) completely misses the point of the proposed legislation. The birth of Jesus was not generally celebrated at all by the Church until the fifth century. Considered apart from his death and resurrection it is not important. We need to have one day a week which is largely free of economic activity.But for the life of me I cannot understand why people are making a fuss about shops opening on Christmas Day (leading article, 20 October). Two of the gospels do not bother to mention it, while the other two are generally held to record no reliable information about it, merely telling theologically significant stories.The modern “family festival” is a fairly recent invention It encourages many to be inward-looking and uncharitable.

The date of Christmas is of course an arbitrary one (whereas Sunday, the first day of the week, is the day on which Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, and therefore has great significance). But wind, wave and solar have a massive contribution to make. If you seriously think that nuclear is the cheap option, why not launch an Independent campaign for new nuclear stations to test your readers’ response?DAVID CHAYTOR MP (Bury North, Lab) Chair, All Party Group for Intelligent Energy House of Commons Unhappy Christmas Sir: I am one of those who regard the loosening of Sunday trading legislation as a big mistake which has damaged the fabric of our national life. The fact is that we have all been paying a secret tax on nuclear for half a century.It is self-evident that the location of some windfarms in areas of high landscape value can be problematic. It is equally self-evident that unless we drastically cut our carbon dioxide emissions, we may not be around for much longer to enjoy the areas of high landscape value.Of course, the management of demand through energy efficiency and new technologies is the key to making big cuts in carbon dioxide. Stations should have wide platforms, and much more exit space than most older stations have today – not a quick fix, and horribly expensive.A good first step would be for London Underground, the health and safety authorities and the emergency services to recognise that a problem exists and to formulate a clear, public strategy to address it.