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The Investment Column: It's pricey but GUS still has upside

It's worth sticking with Whittard of Chelsea; Recovering Incepta is worth holding on to

GUS looks at demerging Experian unit

GUS, the owner of Argos and Homebase, yesterday set itself a two-year deadline to decide whether to break itself up as it unveiled plans to return £200m to shareholders.

The full winter experience is something to be cherished

"LET IT snow, let it snow, let it snow'. I can't remember which of this century's great Christmas lyricists was blessed with the inspiration for this uplifting refrain. But, as it wafted tinnily from the ceiling of my local branch of Homebase this week, I was moved heartily to concur.

Nuts and bolts of a Sainsbury's success story

Jason Nisse talks to the young mother hammering Homebase into shape

Fantasy groom

How do I look? If there's one thing more eye-catching than a room decorated with purple walls and faux-Georgian furniture, it's the man in leather trousers and flowing silk shirt behind it all. Meet Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, the handy dandy of daytime television

The Investment Column: Sainsbury's shares are cheap but should still be left at the checkout

COMING JUST a few weeks after its quarterly trading statement, no one was expecting much from yesterday's half-year figures from Sainsbury's. But as only Sainsbury's can, the company still managed to leave a sour taste in City mouths after a briefing by analysts degenerated into a confrontation, which briefly forced the shares to an eight-year low.

Sainsbury `on track' for sales growth by 2000

J SAINSBURY, the struggling supermarket group, yesterday claimed it was on track to achieve its target to restore the core chain to a position of sales growth by the end of the year, though the City remained unconvinced.

VISUAL ARTS: Home is where the art is

Or will be if Colin Painter has anything to do with it. But do we really want our most private of spaces to be taken over by the stuff? By Tom Lubbock

Design & Shopping: Square pegs, round holes

The Tate's collaboration with Homebase in mass-producing art for the home isn't the first of its kind. And the project raises more questions than it answers.

John Walsh on Monday: The curious art of home furnishing sculptures

THIS MORNING, should you have nothing else to do, why not stroll down to your local Homebase superstore? For there, as unexpected as a teddy bears' picnic in the middle of the M25, you will encounter modern art trying to make itself useful.

Letter: Wordy basis

Sir: I do not know what happened to "before" (letter 18 September), but it seems to have fallen victim to a general belief that the more words, the better. Above the payphone in my local Homebase store a notice reads: "This payphone is emptied on a daily basis." The words "on", "a" and "basis" are redundant, but this flabby construction has now become all but ubiquitous (listen to any news broadcast).

Words: coffin, n.

ANOTHER NEWSPAPER'S corrections column has alerted readers that they might have been misled by a report that "the left-arm spinner ricked his back lifting his coffin out of the car". This was not some prescient bargain, a new line from Homebase, but recent slang among Australian and English cricketers for a cricket-bag taken on tour - not yet in any dictionary, nor in G. A. Wilkes's boggling Australian Colloquialisms.

The Knack: How to Make a Room Look Bigger

CONTRAST IS the key. Use horizontal bands of different colours - keep them quite broad, having about five up a wall. It plays with your sense of perspective and really does make it feel as if the space has got much bigger. The more contrast there is between the stripes the more efficient the effect; white and black are the best because that really does trick your eye, but of course it's up to people whether they can live with that.

Homebase pulls plug on kitchens

SAINSBURY'S Homebase is pulling out of the kitchens business in a move that will lead to the loss of 550 jobs.
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Watch out Watford: Here comes the secretive Bilderberg Group

Watch out Watford: Here comes the secretive Bilderberg Group

A meeting of global power brokers in a Hertfordshire hotel is exciting conspiracy theorists, but what are they really about?
'The ultimate all-in-one home entertainment system': Microsoft finally unveils its Xbox ONE console

'The ultimate all-in-one home entertainment system'

Microsoft finally unveils its Xbox ONE console
Plenty of Fish dating site founder pulls 'Intimate Encounters' option to ward off sleazy men

Plenty of sleaze

Dating website pulls intimate 'hook-up' section to curb harassment
Inferno author Dan Brown 'honoured' to be invited to join the Freemasons

The Freemasons’ Code

Dan Brown reveals the message that told him door to the lodge is open
How to say ‘I’m a sellout’: Tumblr’s David Karp’s message of reassurance to his staff sounded very familiar

How to say ‘I’m a sellout’

Tumblr’s David Karp’s message of reassurance to his staff sounded very familiar
Why clubs are keen to take a stand

Why clubs are keen to take a stand

There's a real desire around the grounds for safe standing. But will the authorities listen?
In the end the fans decided Tony Pulis had made a pig's ear of the job at Stoke City

In the end the fans decided Tony Pulis had made a pig's ear of the job at Stoke City

Disillusion with a siege mentality and negative playing style made change inevitable
James Lawton: The James Hunt I knew is the subject of a new F1 movie

James Lawton: The James Hunt I knew is the subject of a new F1 movie

British driver was fascinating man whose epic duel with Niki Lauda in 1976 was typical of an era of glamour and glory – but also the ever-present threat of death
Stuart Hogg: Ready to climb his own Everest

Stuart Hogg: Ready to climb his own Everest

Lions' cub, 20, joins long line of players from Scottish borders club Hawick given opportunity to make his mark at highest level
Carl Froch handed rare chance of revenge with dream rematch

Steve Bunce on Boxing

Carl Froch handed rare chance of revenge with dream rematch against Mikel Kessler
'There is a battle going on inside us that is never discussed'

Masculinity in crisis?

'There is a battle going on inside us that is never discussed'
Have US shock jocks gone too far?

Have US shock jocks gone too far?

An incendiary remark from Rush Limbaugh may be the beginning of the end for outspoken right-wing US broadcasters
The ‘Beverly Hills’ of Surrey pays more income tax than big cities of the North

The ‘Beverly Hills’ of Surrey

Elmbridge pays more income tax than big cities of the North
Heavenly Bodies

Heavenly Bodies

Michael Landy's artistic marriage made in heaven... and hell
'He will always be a friend': Jackie Stewart backs Polanski

'He will always be a friend'

Jackie Stewart backs Roman Polanski