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Once upon a time Marks & Spencer was famous for its customer service. Everyone knew you could take something back if there was a problem with it. Or even if you'd just changed your mind. It was a unique selling point for them.

As I write this, delegates will be heading to the bar for a swift sundowner before getting on with the serious business of the Welcome Dinner at this year's The Conference in Tenerife.

Not a phrase you hear a lot these days but I think this time the Yanks may be right.

Printing schedules being what they are - and Christmas being what it is - I'm writing this some weeks ahead of publication. Still, I don't think I'm taking too much of a punt in assuming that the financial state of all our affairs will be pretty much the same mid-January as it was mid-December. (Or…

I'm starting to wonder if there are any MPs left in the Palace of Westminster or whether Messrs Brown and Cameron are wandering around rather like people who've been invited to a party but got the address wrong.

Staff retention. Not exactly a priority for most companies in the building industry at the moment. Most are more worried about how they can get rid of people legally and still keep the business going.

Paul Morrell, the UK construction 'tsar' says that the construction industry doesn't have the same government respect as the car industry.

I've talked in the past about the problems we have with the planning system in this country but on Sunday evening I saw something that really brought it home to me.

So, next week's Comprehensive (not) Spending (anything) Review. Is it going to be as bad as we think it will be?

Sometimes it seems as though there are two - if not more - different economies out there.