However, despite the draw of Posh Spice and Lesley Garrett, the opera singer, the cold ensured that the usual shopping frenzy was eclipsed by an unruly media scrum.An hour before the start of the sale, fewer than 50 people were queuing for bargains Two hours before, and only a handful of people were there. And between 11.55pm on Tuesday night and 5.30am yesterday, just three had braved the sub-zero conditions in search of savings of up to 50 per cent.The sense of anti-climax was palpable at 8.35am when Ms Garrett stepped on to a makeshift stage outside Door 5 to sing three songs to an audience comprising more media types than shoppers. Wearing a fur-trimmed suede jacket, she appeared to have registered the size of the crowd when she announced she would sing "The Impossible Dream".Mohamed Al Fayed, the store's owner, dressed in a grey check suit, appeared to have noticed, too, although he put on a wide grin when, from around the corner, the pipe band struck up and accompanied Posh, sans Becks, to Door 5. Both women appeared loath to leave behind the trinkets as the second leg of the walk began.This time, it was up past Linen and Towels, through Oriental Carpets, Glassware and Crystal, to Luggage where, inexplicably, the party did a U-turn, resulting in consternation on the faces of the security heavies, one or two off-notes from the pipers and a pile-up among the photographers. The shopping public watched in astonishment.As the by-now huffing procession chased after the diminutive but fast-paced Mr Fayed, there were a number of bottlenecks on the escalators as it climbed to the fourth floor, not least when one broke down, throwing the Egyptian off balance. Then it was through Jeans, Men's Clothes, Children's Books and Teddy Bears, into the Toy Department, where, under two signs that appropriately read "Circus", the two singers and the millionaire businessman had their picture taken with a 4ft-high teddy dressed in a green suit.Mr Fayed did not speak during the whole ceremony, save to warn the photographers "gently, gently", and to express his anger at the lack of government support for children's hospices such as Francis House. When Susie Mathis, a campaigner for Francis, said Tony Blair had promised to help last year but had subsequently failed to do so, the shop owner shouted: "And this is the Prime Minister of this country." Mr Fayed's contribution to the hospice is thought to be £250,000.Back on the sales floors, the real crowds had begun to gather by 11am.

The first through the doors was Pat Hard, 41, from Biddeston in Avon. After queuing for nine hours, she bought a Celine handbag reduced from £250 to £125 and a pair of Prada shoes reduced from £200 to £125.* Contributions to the Kirsty Howard appeal can be made on 08000 971197.. Drunken behaviour by day trippers "high on cheap liquor'' in Calais became such a problem in the mid-Sixties that the British ambassador in Paris feared it would damage Anglo-French relations. In response, British embassy staff in Paris began looking for ways to persuade the ferry companies to rein in their rowdy customers.Documents released by the Public Record Office yesterday show that Harold Barham, the British ambassador in Paris, told Foreign Office officials in London in 1965 the preferred solution of authorities in Calais was for a cut in opening hours on board the MV Royal Daffodil.

Its weekend trips were held responsible for most of the trouble. "Many of the excursionists taking advantage of cheap liquor were already pretty high by the time they arrived in Calais,'' after the four-and-a- half-hour crossing, he warned.Mr Barham recommended that the ferry operator, General Steam Navigation Company (GSNC), should be asked to "improve discipline'', take out insurance to cover bar owners in Calais and make a goodwill payment to Mr Deldyck. Don't use my name, the GP said. She did not want her son to be branded the child of a troublemaker There were nods of agreement round the group No surnames please. No surnames please.You could be forgiven for thinking this was the meeting of some set of subversives plotting to undermine the fabric of society. But no, those sitting in the circle were pillars of the community: a GP, an accountant, a social worker, a school teacher, a contracts manager and a nurse.And yet there was something of the outsider about them, or so they had been made to feel.

They were all parents of children with disabilities who had come together as part of a mutual support group set up six months ago by Kids, one of the two charities being supported by The Independent in its Christmas appeal, which closes at the end of this week.Some of the decisions faced by the parents of a child with physical or learning disabilities are obvious enough, says Shirley Pethick, the director of the charity's Independent Education Advisory service (IEA), under whose aegis a number of similar parent groups have been established. "For a start, there is the question of whether a mainstream school or a special school would be best for their child. We don't offer an opinion but make sure they have the information to make informed choices," she says.But that is only the first of the dilemmas facing such parents.It was a dark and dismal winter's evening in Hull, yet a dozen or so parents had turned up to the meeting in one of the rooms used for developmental play in the Kids' nursery during the day. Over mugs of tea or coffee they were swapping their many stories.The conversation was wide-ranging: of couples who have not been out together without their disabled child for five years; of the emotional difficulties caused by not having enough time to give to the other children; of how there is no room for anything else in their lives but a calendar of appointments.One of the mothers said: "We had a review meeting the other day of all the professionals involved in our son's education. Teachers, psychologists, physiotherapists, doctors, speech therapists, social workers .... There were 17 people around the table." And all of these people need to be seen separately and routinely.Throughout the talks, one common theme emerged.