All quiet on the shopping front.

I knew you’d all want a dispatch from the frontline of the retail wars so I took a walk along Oxford Street and down Regent Steet, the ventricles of the Britain’s retail heart, on the way back from a lunchtime press conference.

Despite the local paper, the Evening Standard, declaring this "Super Thursday" in shopping land, with 50% discounts signs in many of the windows, it was quiet out there, too quiet.

Meanwhile, what's happening to my beloved Woolworths? It was the only chain store we had in Stornoway when I was growing up. Every airfix, every album, every sweetie and Corgi car of childhood came from there.

The island branch was one of the most profitable outlets the company had and while we've got enough on our plates to be nostalgic about in the Hebrides it'll be sad to see that bit of retail heritage go.