Newspaper review: Papers reflect on shop sales rush

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Papers

All the papers carry photos of shoppers hunting for bargains in the Boxing Day sales.

The Times, on its front page, shows customers at the perfume department in Selfridge's Oxford Street store in London.

Women are pressed up against the counter, stretching their arms as far as they can with their hands wide open - waiting to grab a box of scent at a knock-down price.

The Daily Express says that according to the Centre for Retail Research, a record 10 million shoppers hit the Boxing Day sales, "splashing out" £2.1bn.

The Daily Mail calls it "invasion of the bargain snatchers" with the police called in to keep "public order".

The paper also reports on "aggressive behaviour" from shoppers, with Kieran Benfield from Staffordshire tweeting that he heard a woman at Next threatening to hit someone with a stiletto if she pushed in.

Foreign tourists

Becky Knowles, a 21-year-old student, was out shopping in Wolverhampton with her sister picking up clothes bargains.

She tells the Daily Express that getting up at 04:30 was "well worth the effort" and "now we can go back to bed feeling happy".

The paper also reports that sales figures were "boosted" by rich tourists from China, Nigeria and the Middle East.

The Daily Mail has spoken to Ghada Alhajji, a wife of a Kuwaiti government official who set herself a limit of £10,000, spending £7,000 in Selfridges.

Under the headline "Shop and awe", the Daily Mirror says shoppers went "sales barmy" in a record £3bn spending spree.

Tory drive

An analyst tells the paper that shoppers are going through a feeling of entitlement after a tough year.

The Sun says thousands of super-rich shoppers from China descended on London's West End for the sales.

The Independent reports on its front page that David Cameron has "ordered" a drive in the Conservative Party to increase the number of black and Asian Tory parliamentary candidates.

This is amid "fears" that the party's unpopularity among ethnic minorities could spell disaster at the next election.

The paper says that senior figures have taken as a warning the experience of Republican Mitt Romney in the US presidential election, who was shunned by black and Hispanic voters.

Labour is much more popular among ethnic minorities and the Independent understands that unless the Conservatives can close the gap they could lose between 10 and 15 of their seats.

Museum collection

The Guardian has a dispatch from Berlin which says Germany is dealing with its care crisis by sending "growing numbers" of elderly and sick pensioners abroad for long-term care.

Rising costs, fewer care workers and falling standards have led to the transfer of thousands of old people to homes in eastern Europe and even as far away as Thailand and the Philippines.

The Guardian reports that the "desperate" measure has been described as "inhumane deportation" by social welfare organisations.

While the paper found that some retired Germans were living abroad out of choice because of lower costs, others had gone overseas reluctantly.

According to the Financial Times, 2013 will be "crunch time" for the Wedgwood Museum in Staffordshire which is considered by some to be Britain's greatest ceramics collection.

The FT says the collection faces the threat of being sold to help meet the £134m of liabilities in the pension fund of Waterford Wedgwood - a company that failed more than three years ago.

Eighteen members of the Royal Academy have written a letter of protest at the prospect.

But the museum's administrator tells the FT that he is in the process of seeing if the collection can be kept intact, and if it has to be sold whether it can stay in the UK rather than go abroad.

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