Shoppers splashed out on takeaways and cinema trips at the start of the year amid a new wave of economic confidence following the Conservatives" general election win. Hit First World War film 1917 helped drive a 22pc rise in cinema spending, with the overall amount spent on entertainment up 6.8pc from a year earlier, according to Barclaycard. New Year"s resolutions to live better prompted a 5.9pc jump in health and beauty spending, while higher petrol prices pushed fuel expenditure up 4.3pc. The figures cover spending online and in stores and stand in stark contrast to separate data from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) which showed that the high street suffered a 2.2pc fall in clothing sales and a 1.4pc drop in demand for electronics....