I WRITE in defence of the 70 per cent of British people who completed the last census form stating they were Christians. I am sure 70 per cent of the population cannot all be deemed unable to complete a form properly or express their individual views.

Without being an active parishioner, I am wholly glad to live in a Christian country. I enjoy Sundays being deemed to be a more special day with restricted retail and licensing laws.

I enjoy the Christian calendar giving me time off work at Christmas and Easter, and the BBC does a wonderful job in reflecting our Christian calendar with appropriate programming to support it.

My children and future grandchildren are brought up alongside Christian values, with stories from the Bible to support the education calendar that is underpinned by the Christian calendar.

They even get to take part in the much-loved nativity play at the end of the autumn term.

All the major retailers plot their main sales drives around this calendar, and we all know where we are with it.

Take this all away because we don’t all attend church once a week, and it would be a very sad loss indeed.

Christianity is not about sitting in church: it is a way of life, one we do need to think about carefully before throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Mrs JO GREGORY

Longsands Road

St Neots