by John Keenan

 

A journalist’s lot is not always a happy one.

I will now pause to allow you to reach for your violin and onion before reading the rest of this column.

People call us mean names. They put the phone down on us. They shun us in the queue at supermarkets.

Such behaviour could give a sensitive sort a complex so it is a good job I have the hide of a pachyderm and that I am as highly strung as a lobster pot.

The latest organisation to give me the cold shoulder is Arcadia, the multi- national retail chain.

Alongside bosses at Churchill Square they have come over all coy about the proposed facelift at Brighton and Hove’s largest shopping centre.

Back in November they were effusive in detailing how the front of the centre was to be revamped under new plans, along with the expansion of Topman and Topshop as the new flagship store.

Now all that Churchill Square will say is that a mystery new retailer will be unveiled soon.

I have pleaded with them for more details but to no avail. In a display of reticence that would do justice to a model of Bashful in the Disney store, they insist they have no comment.

The upshot is that shoppers in the city are being kept in the dark about the most significant development in retailing in the city for more than 20 years.

But at the risk of being a bore, I will keep shopping around for answers.