Selling clothes is a tricky business to get right. Most companies operating in the highly competitive world of apparel and footwear have hit bumps in the road, whether they are a high street retailer, a mould-breaking fast fashion challenger or a company catering for “all shapes and sizes”. 

All are at the mercy of consumer confidence, competition from privately owned retailers, and the complex task of keeping customers loyal by satisfying their various requirements.

Any of these issues and others, such as bad weather, can lead companies to fall into the dreaded inventory trap, leaving them with warehouses stuffed full of last year’s stock. Companies have little option but to sell off those unwanted items at a discount. Bootmaker Dr Martens has had a taste of it in the US, where it has endured difficult times. Low-margin Asos, once a market high-flyer, has learnt a harsh inventory lesson. It has now changed its ordering strategy, having suffered a huge backlog of unsold stock triggered by over-ordering, which had to be cleared at knockdown prices. 

Notorious for rarely putting a foot wrong, Next tends to excel at keeping surplus stock to very low levels. But few retailers are immune to a difficult macro environment such as the cost of living crisis putting a strain on customers’ discretionary spending. Sales volumes at online retailer N Brown have disappointed in the past couple of years as customers cut back on website visits and orders, forcing it to work through its own stock clearance programme.

BUY: Bellway (BWY)

Like its peers, completions and revenues fell at Bellway this year, writes Natasha Voase.

This year is proving to be a lost year for the majority of housebuilders and the focus has now shifted to 2025. For Bellway, sluggish conditions of times past were evident in the 30 per cent reduction in completions to 7,654 homes, while future hopes were demonstrated by the 13.8 per cent rise in the private reservation rate.

“Going forward, [which is] perhaps more important, [we’re] in a really good position,” said Keith Adey, group finance director. “We’ve got a much stronger order book for 2025.”

There has been a slight reduction in the size of the land bank from 95,292 to 98,164 plots, which could constrain the housebuilder’s efforts to take advantage of the Labour government’s planning reforms. However, the team plans to start buying again. “The past two years or so . . . have been less active in the land market, but that follows two very strong years of investment,” said Adey.

This focus on growth is also evident in the opening of new sales outlets. While some rivals have reduced numbers, Bellway increased its number of sales outlets by 2.9 per cent and expects to open around 50 new outlets next year to maintain the average number at around 245. Since overall completions are the product of outlets and sales rates, this should help to increase Bellway’s completion statistics.

However, there are some constraints on growth. The company has switched from a net cash to a net debt position of £11mn, which might be negligible compared with net assets, but it could signal that the group will become more reliant on debt to grow. “We’re not frightened of debt at Bellway,” said Adey. “We have a very solid, strong balance sheet [and] if we see good quality land opportunities in the year ahead and that means that the debt position increases very modestly, then we are comfortable with that.”

Government diktats relating to cladding exposure continue to cast a shadow over the industry. Several UK housebuilders have been forced to increase related provisions as the full extent of the problem has become apparent over time. Bellway has already set aside £656mn since 2017 — and many of its buildings are still awaiting third-party assessments. The group has completed its own assessments at “just about every building that we built”, said Adey. However, the third-party assessments still need to be completed.

Bellway currently trades at around 19 times forecast earnings, which is roughly in line with historical averages. It is well placed to take advantage of Labour’s planning reforms, although investors should maintain a beady eye on its cladding provisions. We switch our recommendation cautiously.

HOLD: Sanderson Design (SDG)

The group has been faced by a fall in discretionary budgets, write IC reporters.

The share price of Sanderson Design slumped alarmingly after the interior furnishings group revealed in its interim statement that “trading conditions at the start of the second half have been more challenging than expected in almost all territories, particularly in the UK and Northern Europe”. That translates to a 10 per cent decline in total brand product sales for the first eight months of the current financial year.

Sanderson’s product offering is dependent on discretionary spending patterns in the economy. So, the cumulative effect of the inflationary surge has weighed on performance. The UK market took the brunt of tough macroeconomic conditions, with sales falling by 14 per cent to £16.7mn, while repeat UK sales orders slowed in the subdued consumer environment.

By contrast, Sanderson continued to take advantage of opportunities in the North America market, with sales up by 4 per cent to £11.1mn. Increasing transactions in US licensing agreements had a positive impact, with Sanderson brand sales increasing by 29 per cent. In addition to the uptick in licensing volumes, Sanderson signed a collaborative agreement with the Huntington Museum in California, in which the group will launch wallpapers and fabrics based on unfinished work by William Morris.

FactSet consensus points to EPS of 8.43p a share, rising to 9.4p in January 2026.

A clear distinction has opened up between North America and the rest of Sanderson’s markets, including the UK. Management said that financial performance is “reliant on a projected improvement in trading during the remainder of the financial year”, although beyond a continued fall in interest rates, it’s difficult to highlight any reason why consumer sentiment is likely to improve in the near term.

SELL: N Brown (BWNG)

While they have rallied over the past year, the shares have been very weak over the long term, writes Christopher Akers.

N Brown grew half-year margins despite continued demand weakness, as the Aim-traded online clothing and footwear retailer continued implementing its multiyear “strategic transformation” plan. 

Gross margin rose 190 basis points at the owner of the JD Williams, Simply Be and Jacamo brands, as improved retail stock discipline and higher yield and bad debt improvement at the financial services arm bled through. Cost of sales fell £15mn. 

Meanwhile, a £5.6mn decline in operating costs helped the adjusted ebitda margin improve from 5.9 per cent to 6.8 per cent on ebitda of £18.8mn. 

The revenue decline was driven by a 7.9 per cent contraction in product sales on subdued consumer spending, although the year-on-year decline improved to a negative 2 per cent in third-quarter trading after the period-end.

Over at the financial services unit (the company’s credit proposition) sales fell 4.6 per cent. The arrears rate was 8.9 per cent, compared to 8.4 per cent last year. 

While there are signs that headway is being made with the transformation agenda — a new mobile-first JD Williams website was launched and a product information management system rolled out across brands — weaker key performance indicators show that significant demand problems remain. Order numbers were down 8.1 per cent in the half as active customer numbers fell 10.5 per cent, with website visits moving 2.8 per cent in the wrong direction. 

The shares are up by about 40 per cent over the past year, helped by a return to profit in the annual results in June and some strategic headway, but have fallen almost 75 per cent on a five-year basis. N Brown trades on eight times EV/Ebitda (enterprise value against cash profits), higher than the five-year average.

SCANDINAVIA’S largest waterpark is home to water slides and several pools, and return flights from the UK cost just £31.

Located in Billund in Denmark, Aquadome Billund is the largest waterpark in Scandinavia.

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Billed as a tropical waterpark, Aquadome Billund is packed with attractions like water slides, a wave pool and jacuzzis.

There are five water slides at the Danish waterpark, including Turbo Racer and Feel the Rush, two of the park’s “lightning fast” slides.

Another one of the water slides is called Twister where park-goers are spun around a funnel before heading down the rest of the slide.

Meanwhile, the Tornado is a rubber ring ride where four family members are taken from the heights of the water park to its depths.

There’s also the wild river that takes visitors on a meander around the waterpark and Power Races were park-goers can race against each other to reach the bottom.

Aquadome Billund is also home to several pools, including an activity pool that’s been described as a “paradise” for water activities thanks to its basketball nets, balancing water lilies and dolphin play structures.

There’s also a secret cave pool where park-goers can dive under the water to spot brightly-coloured fish in a huge underwater tank that’s just metres away.

Other pools include a heated spa pool and a wave pool.

The waterpark is also home to a huge water playground with a host of activities, including giant tipping buckets and water cannons.

For younger visitors, there’s also a baby pool and a children’s pool for visitors aged five and under.

Adults can unwind in the infrared sauna.

Other on-site facilities include a changing area, a food court, a food terrace and a pavilion that serves snacks and other refreshments.

Aquadome Billund has been praised by visitors on TripAdvisor, with a 4/5 star rating on TripAdvisor from over 600 reviews.

One person wrote: “A great place, especially for small children, as the majority of the room and slides in Aquadome are dedicated to them.”

A second person added: “I’m not sure I’ve ever seen so many slides! This place makes Lalandia.”

While a third wrote: “A great day out for all the family.”

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Aquadome Billund is part of Lalandia Billund, a holiday centre with an on-site holiday park and other adventure park areas.

Other themed areas inside the holiday centre include Winter World, with an ice rink, a climbing wall, a toboggan run and a brand-new ride called Sky Rider that gives park-goers an aerial view of the festive world.

There’s also Monky Tonky Land – an indoor play area with trampolines, ball pitches and a Lego area.

Other areas include a sports and fitness facility, a games and bowling area and an entertainment venue with children’s shows and family karaoke.

Outside there’s also an adventure park with a 16m-high tower complete with balancing trials, a zipline and a viewing terrace.

Lalandia in Billund is just a five-minute walk from Legoland Billund.

Holidaymakers can book to stay overnight at one of the on-site holiday homes that can sleep up to eight people.

Visitors who prefer to stay elsewhere can book day tickets to Lalandia Billund.

Entry costs just under £38 per person.

Direct flights operate from London and Manchester to Billund, with return fares starting from £31 in November.

Flights take just 90 minutes.

Meanwhile, this is what it’s like to go down the world’s tallest and fastest waterslide.

And this award-winning waterpark has the UK’s biggest wave pool.

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When the World Bank and IMF were conceived 80 years ago, the world was a very different place. Over half of the population lived in extreme poverty, protectionism was rife, and much of Europe had been razed to the ground. Tasked with postwar reconstruction and development, and promoting monetary co-operation, the Bretton Woods twins helped to turn things around.

Destitution has fallen sharply. Trade now accounts for over 60 per cent of global GDP, and liberal democracies have sprouted across the world. Of course, the World Bank and IMF were not solely responsible for this progress, nor were their interventions without flaws. But armed with technical expertise, significant lending capacity, and convening power, the pair did fill a void where global co-ordination was lacking.

As the twins gather next week for their annual meetings, however, they are confronting a new set of challenges which risk undoing some of what they have achieved so far.

First, their authority as a global voice has weakened. The world’s economic and demographic centre of gravity has shifted away from the US and Europe and towards China and India. But voting power in both the World Bank and IMF remains disproportionately in the west’s favour, making it harder for the pair to claim to be a truly global voice. China is already estimated to be the world’s largest creditor. Its greater role in lending to the developing world has complicated the IMF’s debt restructuring processes and undermined the institutions’ loans, which are often conditioned on reforms.

Second, the west is stepping away from many of the economic values that it backed both institutions to uphold. The US-China trade war has intensified. Tariff and non-tariff barriers are rising, as are calls for onshoring. A second “America first” agenda under Donald Trump would deepen this trend, which has seen globalisation slow and global co-operation wither.

Third, the developing world looks fragile. This week, the World Bank warned that global poverty reduction had “slowed to a near standstill” amid damaged post-pandemic economies, shocks from wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and mounting debt payments. Structural reforms have slowed and democratisation has been uneven. Finally, the fight against global warming has raised financial pressures on the Bretton Woods pair to support the climate transition, and to build resilience across the world to extreme weather.

These are daunting pressures. But they only underscore why global co-operation is such a precious commodity. Climate change, cycles of poverty, and economic conflict between superpowers create international problems that require international solutions.

As they have done before, the World Bank and IMF must adapt. No other set of institutions can match their levels of capital, experience, and support across continents. The pair are currently consulting on how they might evolve. There are a few areas they ought to focus on. They need to better represent the world they seek to govern, and use their standing with shareholders, other lenders, and private investors to raise more finance and restructure debts faster. Their policy remedies for driving growth and reducing indebtedness also need to be more attuned to on-the-ground political realities.

The world facing the World Bank and IMF may look different today, but the spirit in which they were forged at Bretton Woods remains as important as ever. As US Treasury secretary Henry Morgenthau Jr said in his closing address at the conference in 1944: “We have come to recognise that the wisest and most effective way to protect our national interests is through international co-operation.”

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Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s controversial plan to send asylum seekers rescued from the Mediterranean Sea to Albania has suffered a serious setback after a Rome immigration court rejected the offshore detention of the first group of migrants.

In its verdict, the Rome court’s immigration section ruled that 12 male migrants held in Albania — who originally come from Bangladesh and Egypt — “have the right to be taken to Italy” due to the “impossibility of recognising the states of origin of the detained persons as ‘safe countries’.”

The decision was founded on a recent verdict by the European Court of Justice, which ruled this month that countries cannot be deemed “partially safe” for the purpose of deciding on deportations.

An Italian official confirmed the 12 would be brought to Italy for further processing.

The verdict is an embarrassing political setback for Meloni, who has touted her scheme for holding would-be asylum seekers in centres in Albania as a means of fulfilling her pledge to reduce inflows of irregular migrants from across the Mediterranean.

Her plan — and its promise of processing asylum claims offshore — has attracted strong international interest, with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen describing it as an example from which to draw lessons, and UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer recently asking Meloni in Rome for more details.

Meloni expressed dismay at the ruling but insisted it would only be a temporary setback.

“Italians have asked me to stop illegal immigration and I will do my best, she said during an official trip to Lebanon. “I’m sorry that at a time when all of Europe is looking at something that Italy is trying to do, we’re trying, as always, to put spokes in the wheels.”

Meloni said she was convening an emergency cabinet meeting on Monday to discuss how to overcome the new legal obstacles. “I don’t think it’s the judges’ competence to determine which countries are safe and which are not; it’s the government’s competence,” she said. “Maybe the government needs to clarify better what is meant by a safe country.”

Italy has so far spent at least an estimated €60mn to build and equip the Albanian centres, which formally started operating on Wednesday with the arrival of an initial 16 migrants. 

Of that first group, selected from among hundreds of people rescued in the Mediterranean by Italian authorities in recent days, four were immediately deemed ineligible to be held in Albania and were taken onwards to Italy — two who were thought to be minors and two for medical reasons. 

Senator Lucio Malan, a member of Meloni’s rightwing Brothers of Italy party, called the court’s order to send the remaining 12 migrants back to Italy “scandalous”.

“Some politicised magistrates have decided there are no safe countries of origin,” the senator, who sits on the senate’s foreign relations committee, wrote on X. “It is impossible to detain those who enter illegally; it is forbidden to repatriate illegal immigrants.

“They would like to abolish the borders of Italy: we will not allow it,” he added.

The far-right League, the party of Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, called the court order “unacceptable”. 

Interior minister Matteo Piantedosi told a press conference on Friday afternoon that the government would appeal against the ruling with a higher court.

Lawyer Lorenzo Trucco, president of the Association for the Study of Immigration Law, hailed Friday’s decision, saying “the rule of law had prevailed over the illegitimate acts” of the government, and had exposed the “absurdity and unfairness” of the Italy-Albania deal.

The deal reached between Meloni and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama last year allowed Italy to build two migrant detention centres in Albania to hold up to 3,000 migrants while Italian authorities processed their asylum claims.

The deal specified that the centres would only hold healthy adult men from countries that Italy had already deemed “safe” for potential return. Those found to have valid asylum claims would be granted refuge in Italy, while those deemed to be illegal immigrants would be returned to their countries of origin through an expedited process

To prepare for the centres’ opening, Italy earlier this year designated 22 countries — including Bangladesh and Egypt — as safe for returns with some exceptions, such as for political dissidents from Egypt and LGBT+ people from Tunisia.

The EU court ruled that European law does not permit countries to be categorised as partially safe, which shaped the Rome court’s verdict. New EU rules due to come into force in 2026, however, will allow countries to be described as safe with exceptions for some regions or some categories of people.

Italy is seeking to advance implementation of that part of the bloc’s migration and asylum pact, said an EU diplomat. Von der Leyen, in a letter to the bloc’s leaders this week, committed to bringing the revision of the safe countries concept forward to 2025.

Additional reporting by Paola Tamma in Brussels 

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The ground is soft and easily planted with bulbs. The last spring flowering bulbs that should go in are tulips, readily plantable until late November. Tulips and I have had a rollercoaster ride in recent years, but I am checking in for another turn.

In the 2010s, when we started to have hotter temperatures in spring, I went off tulips. They flowered weeks early and dropped their petals after a few days of sunshine. For our Oxford college gardens I choose tulips predicted to flower in May when the undergraduates will be in residence to enjoy them. In accelerated spring times they flower in early April when the college is shut for Easter. For a few days I enjoy them, feeling spoilt and guilty that their target audience cannot.

The cream and yellow flowers of Grand Perfection are feathered with dark red, like tulips in an old Dutch painting

Are they worth the cost and trouble, I began to wonder three years ago? Still wondering, I planted midseason Triumph tulips for this year’s spring as I needed a display on April 14, the date of the ceremonial inauguration of a newly built college quadrangle and its series of borders and flowerbeds. Mid-season Triumphs are billed as flowering in late April to May but, in a warmer season, I thought mid-April would be nearer the mark. As late as December 6 we planted our chosen varieties. We did not combine them first into a multicoloured mixture. We spaced them out in segregated groups of 20. The rain poured down our necks as we trowelled each one in, leaving four inches of soil above its tip and scattering a pinch of bone meal, a good trick, under its base. It seemed unlikely they would survive the wet and justify their name.

After a continuously mild and damp winter, they began to flower on March 6. A display for the inauguration seemed a lost cause, but the days and nights remained cold and to my amazement the tulips held their flowers for six weeks as if in an outdoor fridge. The mainstays were Flaming Agrass, a lovely blend of white and mid-yellow; blood red Hollandia, a great choice; and the excellent Grand Perfection whose cream and yellow flowers are feathered with dark red, like tulips in an old Dutch painting. I recommend them all, whatever the weather throws at them.

At home, I planted premixed assortments of Triumph tulips instead. I had high hopes, but they were planted within sight of wildlife in open country. Two setbacks destroyed them. First, the leaves on many of them began to turn brown and wrinkle: they were victims of the fungal condition called tulip fire. A frequent cause of it is excessive wet, just what last winter gave by the bucketful. There is no ready spray to kill it off. Worse, it persists in the soil for at least three years.

A few of my tulips avoided it and set promising buds. They advanced no further because in one night of murder a visiting muntjac bit off all the buds, eating some, scattering others uselessly on the ground. So much for wildlife in the garden, that indiscriminate mantra. It bites off more than it can chew.

This year I will try a different tactic, one that will bring my plantings closer to many of yours. I will plant the tulips in big clay pots and space the pots in the gaps in flowerbeds where dahlias have been sulking in the recent wet weather. Out come the dahlias to be stored away from frost until late May. In their place will go clay pots wide enough to take about 10 tulips each. I will buy cheap pots from supermarkets and keep the tulips out of reach of animals at ground level. Between the pots I will mix blue forget-me-nots and double pink and white bellis, known as bachelor’s buttons. In pots, the tulips will be in fresh soil, free of fungal tulip fire. Except for the menace of wildlife, the pots could be black plastic, sunk into the surrounding soil but shielded from its diseases. If so, they need to be watered in a dry spring.

In urban courtyards or on balconies you may be potting tulips too: in a range that can seem bewildering, which are good choices? Tulips span months from March to May, so make use of the full season. I begin with Water Lily tulips, which usually in flower in March. Their flower stems are less than a foot tall so they are excellent choices for window boxes, yellow and red Giuseppe Verdi and cream and red Johann Strauss being my favourites. In window boxes lily-flowered tulips are no good as they are too tall and flop badly. The fosteriana group is much better — lovely white Purissima and vivid scarlet Madame Lefevre being the best in early April.

For mid-May, Tulip Queen of the Night is a top-seller: a dark maroon that is indeed almost black. I mix it in pots with a few white ones, especially Alabaster, which flowers at the same time: six or seven black to three white. Another chic option is a green-flowered variety from the viridiflora group, which flowers in late April; Green Spirit is a cool customer, a cream-white with green stripes on its petals, as is the similar Spring Green. In pots they are eye-catching, but after a long wet winter I am even more cheered by Yellow Spring Green, a bright yellow with green stripes, a tulip that opens prettily and holds itself well.

Tulips offer colours unlike any other flower, so it is fun to choose them. I particularly like those that are streaked or striped, Olympic Flame being my top choice, a Darwin hybrid whose primrose yellow flowers are streaked with red. In pots, the ruffled flowers of parrot tulips are fun too, especially the robust Estella Rynveld, a May-flowering tulip whose white flowers are twirled with red and streaks of green, and Flaming Parrot, whose mid-yellow flowers are feathered in bright red. In flowerbeds, parrot tulips in a block look too exotic, but in pots they are very striking, apt for their artificial setting.

Parks and public gardens accustom our eyes to tulips massed by the hundred in only one colour. In a broad open space they are impressive, but in a garden I find small groups, dotted in tens, are more effective and obviously much cheaper. In the beautifully planned gardens at Coton Manor in Northamptonshire, double-flowered tulips are planted in small groups where the bare earth is visible in the broad borders of summer flowering plants. They look like early peonies and blend in beautifully, pink Finola with a dash of white being the garden’s favourite. I am trying white-and-red streaked Carnaval de Nice for this purpose, badgers permitting. It is an excellent use for double tulips, which simulate peonies and otherwise look too fussy.

Good choices proliferate, but these are a start. Water lily tulips will often flower well for a year or two, but the others I have named are one-year wonders. The bulbs split in British gardens and seldom build up to a size that flowers again. Tulips are the very opposite of sustainable. They are unmissable, unlike sustainable, tedious ground elder. Beauty is still beauty, even if it lasts for no more than a fortnight.     

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THE best pubs in Britain have been revealed, with four finalists now competing for the top spot.

Every year the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) assembles a list of less than 20 local pubs from around the UK for a shortlist in its Pub of the Year competition.

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This is the highest achievement a pub can receive and is especially important at a time when many pubs are being forced to shut up shop due to high energy prices and other costs.

All pubs are scored on their atmosphere, decor, welcome, service, inclusivity, overall impression and the quality of drinks including beer, real cider and perry.

This year there are 17 pubs which have been hand-picked from thousands across the nation.

These include both local pubs and former high street shops.

The shortlist has now been whittled down to just four competitors, of which the overall winner will be crowned in January 2025.

Last year’s winner was the Tamworth Tap in Staffordshire, which bagged the top spot in both 2023 and 2022.

Black Horse

Among the top four finalists is the Black Horse in Preston.

This Victorian Grade II listed pub still has many of the original fittings from when it was built, including a ceramic bar, tiled walls and mosaic floor.

A seating area has been dubbed the “Hall of Mirrors” due to its breathtaking original stained glass.

Its ten handpumps include four changing guest beers and a range of ciders.

Despite its name it’s not a dark horse in the contest and has already bagged the titles of Central Lancashire Branch Pub of the Year and Lancashire Branches Pub of the Year.

Three B’s

This micropub in Bridlington is run by a husband and wife duo who are passionate about beer and cider.

Its name encapsulates the pub’s ethos and stands for “banter”, “beer” and “bar snacks”.

The Three B’s aims to never sell the same beer twice, which ensures there’s always an exciting range of ever changing drinks at the bar.

Meanwhile, its customer service is unmatched and staff are keen to chat about the drinks they serve and the local area.

Little Green Dragon

There’s something for everyone at the Little Green Dragon in Winchmore Hill.

The micropub boasts an ever changing selection of four cask beers which are sourced from local and independent breweries.

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Plus there’s a fantastic selection of real cider, perry and four keg beers.

While they drink, pubgoers can also enjoy a traditional game of table skittles or shove ha’penny.

The pub has already secured several titles including CAMRA’s Great London Pub of the Year.

The Bailey Head, Oswestry

Close to the Welsh borders in the delightful market town of Oswestry is the Bailey Head.

The pub has one of the largest beer selections in all of Shropshire and claims to have sold more than 3,400 different beers since it flung open its doors in March 2016.

There are six constantly changing cask beers and always includes one dark beer, plus eleven other draught beers, four ciders and a perry.

National Pub of the Year Coordinator Andrea Briers said: “These fantastic four are the epitome of what a good pub should be.

“I am excited to find out which one will be crowned the best pub in the UK.”

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