For a man who has gone from knighted to benighted in just two weeks, Sir Stuart Rose was on ebullient form as he defended Marks & Spencer’s poor sales figures. It’s not us, it’s the market, was the message as M&S shares dived 19 per cent. There is plenty of meat in this argument. The market reaction was severe because of M&S’s stature as much as its performance.

But if the comeback kid of the high street had such a poor Christmas, what about its peers? Listed retailers sunk en masse, while pitying looks were flung towards the clothiers in private hands.

Headlines over the past months have been dominated by the credit crunch. The key question has been how far the problems have spread beyond rarefied banking circles. Does a collapsing structured investment vehicle in America eventually translate into a UK consumer dithering in the lingerie aisles and deciding against that extra purchase? M&S yesterday gave an answer to that question, and it was not the one everyone had optimistically been hoping for.

The new spirit of pessimism was fuelled by Sir Stuart, who gave warning that tough trading conditions could extend well into 2009. But within the context of the wider malaise and taking into account the unfortunate side effects of its totemic status, M&S did disappoint. The sales figures came in lower than expected, despite its £1 billion store refurbishment plan and its high-profile advertising campaign. When the wider market is a problem, the winners will be those who perform less badly than everyone else – and, based on yesterday’s performance, that select group may not include M&S. It is fighting to keep market share at all ends of the clothing market, engaging in ferocious cost-cutting, which has seen price deflation of 6 per cent just as costs are escalating. The pain this tactic induces will be difficult to bear in the short term.

Yet it is far too early to lambast Sir Stuart’s achievements at M&S. The key challenge at the start of his tenure was to rekindle the waning love affair between Britain’s middle classes and their once-favourite store. There is discernibly more heat in that relationship four years on. While the middle classes are feeling the squeeze, they may not be spending as much as shareholders would like in the stores, but as long as the enlivened relationship survives the current turmoil, Sir Stuart has plenty of time left to find vindication.

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