After clothing sales slumped at M&S, can the traditional high street retailer survive? January 10, 2013 YES Neil Saunders Retail can be seen as a game of two halves. Last year, spending through physical outlets grew by 0.2 per cent, whereas online retail spending grew by 13 per cent. But while the growth of online has put pressure on physical retailing, the situation is not all doom and gloom. Firstly, the [...]
Letters to the editor January 10, 2013 The cyber threat [Re: Technology alone can’t save businesses from the threat of cyber criminals, yesterday] I want to thank Tom Burton for his excellent article. I wonder if the secrecy culture with which the anti-cyber crime industry surrounds itself, for fear of educating the criminal, is not actually hurting its cause. Having worked in [...]
Who you gonna call? These guys January 10, 2013 FILM GANGSTER SQUAD Cert 15 **** What KIND of a name is Gangster Squad? It sounds like something a bunch of unimaginative children might have come up with. But Gangster Squad is the perfect name for this movie. Perfect. The eponymous squad are essentially a group of superheroes with badges, assembled to defeat an evil [...]
Les Misérables is one for afficionados of the musical only January 10, 2013 FILM LES MISÉRABLES Cert 12A ***** (fans of the stage musical) * (everybody else) I TELL you what, there ain’t half a lot of singing in Les Misérables. If you’re not au fait with musicals, it doesn’t go: acting, acting, acting, song, acting, acting, acting, song. It goes: song, song, song, song, song, song, song. [...]
Man United can overcome tough battle against the old enemy January 10, 2013 MANCHESTER UNITED vs LIVERPOOL Sunday 1.30pm LIVERPOOL may not be the force of old but when they play Manchester United it’s still the biggest clash in English football. United’s long standing servant Paul Scholes came out this week to maintain that, despite Manchester City’s emergence as a force, the Reds were still their greatest rivals. [...]
Hard to split the sides in crucial contest at Emirates Stadium January 10, 2013 ARSENAL vs MANCHESTER CITY Sunday 4.00pm BY THE time Manchester City kick off at Emirates Stadium they could be 10 points behind their biggest rivals Manchester United. Roberto Mancini overhauled an eight-point deficit last year and knows that keeping the gap at a manageable distance is crucial. The Gunners strung together a four-match winning streak [...]
Blue Square Bet winter carnival January 10, 2013 WE got off to a great start in the Blue Square Bet Sprint Series at Lingfield Park last week and it’s brilliant to see the second round split into two divisions again, with both first-round winners, Desert Strike and Putin, appearing in the second division tomorrow at 2.00pm. Our odds on both the leading jockey [...]
Negredo on Spurs radar as hopes fade over Damiao January 10, 2013 TOTTENHAM could turn to £15m Spain striker Alvaro Negredo after manager Andre Villas-Boas conceded defeat in the club’s long-running pursuit of Brazilian Leandro Damiao. Spurs have been tracking 23-year-old Damiao for more than two years and hoped to finally clinch his signing this month, but Villas-Boas admitted yesterday that his arrival was “extremely unlikely”. That [...]
Sarries no Goode but racing into Euro quarters with Quins January 10, 2013 SARACENS can take a major step towards the Heineken Cup quarter-finals by beating Racing Metro in Nantes tomorrow. Victory for Sarries would all but secure their place in the last eight with a game to go in the pool stages. But they will have to do without England full-back Alex Goode, who is out with [...]
Torres needs to be more Tevez and less Owen January 10, 2013 IT WAS questionably disallowed, but Demba Ba scored a superb goal in Chelsea’s defeat to Swansea on Wednesday night. That strike underlined the flying start Ba has made to life at Stamford Bridge. He hasn’t looked the least bit overawed since moving from Newcastle and seems brimming with confidence. Ba was clearly bought to be [...]
