Thanks for your opinions...
Sorry I couldn't reply beforehand but I was away working. I thank everyone for their inputs and opinions. I would just like to reiterate some of the provisos from my first post and defend myself against some of the more "colorful" replies.
My post concerned, firstly, reading during short-haul flying on the A320 and, secondly, reading without declaring it. I have had three occasions in my career in short-haul commercial aviation in Europe when the simple act of looking out detected non-controlled military aircraft and meteo ballons passing in dangerously close proximity (yes, reports were filed). Thirdly, the only co-pilots I've ever asked to actually stop reading were those who started reading whilst the plane was still changing its vertical mode, either climbing or descending. Otherwise I simply ask my colleague to take the company-approved "fatigue management break", an up-to-40 minute break with which they can read or close their eyes, I don't care, but which has the added bonus of legally covering us should an incident occur (won't help much if an actual mid-air collision occurs but you get the point...).
Chief-pilots don't hold exclusive rights on best airmanship practice. It is the responsibility of each and every captain to determine how best to conduct his flight, how safe is safe enough. What someone might call a "relaxed" flight-deck, others might call slack. I personally know which type of pilot I would rather have my family flying with. By the way, I'm also a firm believer in the "sterile cockpit" and I also feel obliged to give any cockpit jump-seat riders a proper safety briefings before push-back too. I even take repetitive checklist work earnestly. In other works, I take airmanship seriously. That doesn't make me a nazi (actually I'm an Aussie). Perhaps surprisingly for some in these forum, the vast majority of feedback that I have received from my F/Os on the line has been overwhelmingly positive, that they appreciate such conscientiousness. Maybe even a good impression might have been made on some, like some of my many captains made on me during my years in the right-hand seat.
In any case, after reading some of the comments posted here, I have to admit that I actually prefer being a relic of a bygone age, when pilots really were pilots and not apparently just bored (Air)bus drivers.
What prompted me to write this thread was simply the growing tendency I have noticed of new F/Os reading in the cockpit. I have now come to realise that just because everyone else might be doing it doesn't make it any more correct... I for one do not intend to lower my standards to their level.