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Keep it quiet, but there are just 20 shopping days left before Christmas.

This year, the mad-dash to the shopping centres hasn’t quite been the same as it has in previous years. Massive consumer debt, the threat of job losses and the economic downturn means that, as far as the retailers are concerned, this Christmas is bound to be one of the toughest that they’ve faced in 10 years.

Whilst flash “30% off” fire sales have managed to get consumers through the door, the reality is that we just aren’t spending as much as we did last year.

The Royal Bank of Scotland have been in the news this week with the part-nationalised bank offering good news for both mortgage holders and current account holders.

With Britain’s banks currently fighting several separate battles, RBS, who also own NatWest, has taken high profile moves in two of them. Growing pressure from the government to take a more lenient stance on property repossessions and another potential bombshell is the current court battle for the right to charge customers for late payments, bounced direct debits and unauthorised overdrafts.

Gordon Brown looks set to be presiding over one of the highest levels of debt in Europe by 2010, according to a new report.

A report by the European Commission has warned that debt levels in the UK will reach as high as 60% of GDP by 2010 as the economy shrinks by “at least” 1% - the worst economic performance since 1991.

Gloomy forecasts were also made for UK employment statistics, with the prediction being that 7.1% of the workforce will be out of work in 2009, much higher than the figure of 5.7% for 2008.