Rose pruning leaves gaps

SO the smack of firm government has returned to Marks & Spencer. All the brilliant stuff we were told had been done by the previous regime, from the genius of Vittorio Radice at Lifestore to the switch of menswear director Maurice Helfgott into food, is being reversed rapidly.

So now we know that new M&S chief executive Stuart Rose is not just a manikin to defend M&S's honour against the marauders, but is making real changes.

But take a deeper look. The consequence of Rose's reshuffle is that the parts of the business which need the most management talent now have the least.

The food operation's market share is under pressure. It has been cannibalised by the Simply Food concept and desperately needs sorting out. But now it has a vacancy at the top.

Radice may be seen by Rose as an expensive luxury. But his abrupt departure leaves a vacuum. The most problematic part of the business is womenswear, which is at the core of the old St Michael offering. Radice was placed in charge because no one else could be found. The much-heralded Kate Bostock from Asda is in her garden until October.

Home products, where Radice was the boss, has been haemorrhaging sales and there is nothing in M&S's management changes to suggest it has someone to address the problem immediately.

Helfgott will have more than enough on his plate with menswear and childrenswear - another deep-seated problem.

Charles Wilson's elevation to the board was inevitable. He is the rear end of the Rose pantomime horse. His logistical and cost-cutting skills should enable a speedup of the Roger Holmes rationalisation-agenda. This is what he did for Rose and for predator Philip Green, for whom he worked for four months, at Arcadia. A margin improvement will be extremely useful pending efforts to repair sales.

The real challenge for Rose is to turn around the whole shop offering. Walking the floors, as he did late yesterday, may provide him with some retail therapy. But perhaps he should pop into Next.

On some calculations the rival's share of Britain's clothing market has doubled from 3.5% to just under 7% over the last four years - which explains where much of M&S's sales have gone.

The search for board replacements for Brian Baldock and Dame Stella Rimington comes none too soon. They are part of the old guard that has allowed tens of millions of pounds to walk out of headquarters in the shape of sign-on fees and payoffs. But what M&S calls a new 'chairperson' will be needed first.

Such political correctness is unlikely to survive a Green cash offer if it eventually arrives.

Oil troubles

FINALLY, the official data for manufacturing is catching up with survey evidence showing that a recovery is taking place.

In April output from the nation's factories jumped 0.9%, with machinery leading the upturn, indicating a rise in investment spending.

This could well strengthen the hands of the hawks at today's session of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee. They will be able to point out that industry is strengthening despite three interest rate rises over the last six months.

More disturbing for the economy's longer-term health is the latest trade data. The deficit is going up even though exports are strong.

The problem is oil. Britain's oil balance has moved into deficit for the first time since August 1991. Exports of oil were lower, but imports climbed by £323m.

It would be easy to argue that this is simply the price effect of the present turbulence in the Gulf. But it may well be more serious-than that. North Sea oil extraction is weakening, which is reflected in lower oil exports. If this proves to be part of a longerterm trend, there could be some grisly times for our balance of payments.

For the moment the public mind is focused on the cost of borrowing. But the failure of long-term energy planning could yet have a sharp impact on the nation's prosperity.

Mirror farce

NO one could accuse the Department of Trade & Industry of hurried findings.

It has taken four years to clear former Mirror editor Piers Morgan of insider trading allegations in the shares of Alan Sugar's computer company Viglen and to decide that three others - Anil Bhoyrul, James Hipwell and Terry Shepherd - may have been in breach of the Financial Services Act and could be prosecuted.

The speed of justice at Whitehall leaves a great deal to be desired.