WE have a cat down. It's the grey cat which spags the baby and bites your hand when you try to stroke it, but it's poorliness has been surprisingly upsetting. The vet thinks he may have been hit by a car. I didn't like to tell her I'd thrown away his pet slug and he's probably just unable to walk through grief.

Elsewhere the fur is really flying – a link worth 25p of the cover price on its own – over the debate over the quality of Richmond's retail offering. I'm surprised nobody has brought out the big guns. No town is in that bad a shape when it has a Yorkshire Trading.

I suspect the buyer for Yorkshire Trading is the eccentric lovechild of Lady Gaga and Willy Wonka.

"Today I will buy racks of tweed country clothing and every colour of loom band known to man.

"Tomorrow I will mostly be purchasing salt for icy paths, spray paint for cars that are no longer made and rolls of wool that cost more than a jumper from Primark.

"When I have finished buying I shall be demanding that staff stack the shelves to the roof so that only people over 7ft 5in tall, or those with Zebedee springs for legs, can purchase the full range of our products."

In a way, the battle to preserve our market towns has already been lost. They haven't been properly competing with Teesside Park, Tesco or even Darlington for years. I reckon, and I'm frequently wrong, they've got to pick a different fight. A trip to a market town has to be a pleasant, enjoyable experience. That is the way our towns can survive.

It's a Saturday afternoon and you want to get out of the house to fill in time before shouting obscenities at TV talent show judges. The pub. Possibly. A walk. If I have to. What about popping to Richmond. Ice cream down by the river. Into Yorkshire Trading for stuff you didn't know you needed until you spotted it in the rafters. A cuppa at The Station. The latest EL James novel from Castle Hill Bookshop. A bit of shoplifting at Edinburgh Woollen Mill.

Time filled, money spent, reasonably enjoyable experience. You can't do that on Amazon.