A successful Christmas selling season can rarely have been so important for retailers after the forced closures of lockdown. 

At the same time, rarely has the outlook for peak been as unsettled as it is now, when the virus is wreaking new havoc and threatens more and worse to come.

The restoration of some semblance of normality, such as being able to eat out again or an uptick in staff returning to offices – even if slowly-slowly – now looks as if it could be in jeopardy, particularly after the new restrictions announced by Boris Johnson.