"We were told to close the shutters. That was it"

Fittingly, on the day that the historian Eric Hobsbawm died, this story was run on the BBC website, about the closure of sportswear chain JJB Sports.

The short quote from a staff member at a Scottish branch of the chain summed up one of the more depressing aspects of modern capitalism - a feature that the great man would have probably recognised:

"Fraser Harrower worked as a sales adviser at the Dunfermline branch of JJB, which was closed down this morning. He told the BBC that two administrators walked in unannounced:

"At around 11:30 this morning we had two administrators walk in and they were there for all of maybe 90 seconds and my assistant manager came out and we were told to close the shutters and the business was closed. 

That was it.""