The weather isn’t to blame for Britons shopping less

It was the weather wot did it, wot stopped us spending in the shops. Yet again, the favourite old excuse has been trotted out by retailers trying to explain where their sales have vanished.

Retail sales volumes in September, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reports this morning, plunged by 0.9 per cent in September, with a quarterly fall of 0.8 per cent. Apparently the hot weather in September is to thank for delaying us going down to the high street to try on all the exciting autumn collections (although why we didn’t do this later in the month when temperatures fell they don’t explain).