It's a holiday -better get down the shops

After a  'consumer-fest' ahead of the  December 25th holiday in UK and with a few days off what do the great British public do but go and hit the shops again (and also make a load of on-line purchases too)?

With discounts often over 50% it can be tempting to not only stock up with what we need but also buy a load of stuff that we don't even want let alone need.

If we're going to make any further  progress towards a reinvigorated economy under the Tory lead coalition in the few months before the election it will be as a result of consumer spending and the overheated housing market in the South East- it's not what Osborne and his cronies were planning (which was proclaimed as a rebalance to the productive economy) - and it's a shallow success but if it means more jobs then it should be a cause for some limited celebration.

 Ed Miliband has been making a good fist of leading the Labour party over the last few years but it's not the story the media want and there's a real danger that the hollow, shallow, publicity-crazed  Farage will continue to make the agenda by a lack of ambition from the Editors of our TV, radio and other media outlets - the likely scenarios after May are interesting and may stretch the consensus that Westminster is accustomed to.

We were out in a very busy Kingston (on Thames) yesterday and I took the picture below in John Lewis  - which as a result of the light in the shop has a faux Christmas appearance that I'm pleased with.

A  post Christmas scene in John Lewis Kingston