When the John Lewis Partnership announced its most recent results in March, they appeared not only to defy the doom-laden headlines, which have plagued the British high street since 2008, but economic gravity too. Group gross sales? Up by 9.3 per cent to £9.54 billion. Group revenues? Up by 9.1 per cent to £8.47 billion. Group operating profits? Up by 15 per cent to £452.4 million. And so it went on.