A restaurateur revealed he lost more than half of his Christmas bookings during the first day of crippling rail strikes which forced customers to stay at home

IAN LADYMAN: Friday morning, at 11.18am, the second call to prayer of the day rang out across the empty streets and alleyways of a traditional market thought to be at least 100 years old.

Shoppers shared photos of emptying shelves at Lidl and Sainsbury’s stores amid Britain’s worst ever bird flu crisis, and Wetherspoon is offering breakfast substitutes as it struggles to supply eggs.

Fewer than one in ten civil servants were at their desks in some Whitehall departments after the Queen died.

Motorways across Britain were almost deserted on Monday ahead of the Queen’s funeral. Most trips in and around the Capital have been limited to Tube journeys or buses with darkened windows.

Strike action at the Port of Felixstowe is likely to disrupt £700m worth of trade and will have a direct impact on brands such as Asda, John Lewis, Tesco and Marks & Spencer.

People were queuing up for bottled water in the Cranleigh Village Way car park this morning but retired England left-back Graeme Le Saux said the station had already run out by the time he arrived.