Last year during a debate in the House of Commons, Prime Minister David Cameron told Wallasey Labour MP, Angela Eagle, to "calm down dear".

I'm not sure what's worse - his patronising response to an experienced member of parliament, or the fact that he was quoting Michael Winner.

But seriously folks, the PM's dismissive retort was perhaps indicative of ingrained attitudes towards women - an issue that has come to fore again in recent days ...

Since the 2008 credit crunch and subsequent global economic downturn, capitalism has taken something of a bashing.

Reckless risk-taking by casino bankers and FTSE 100 chief executives taking home annual pay packets that to most of us would be a lottery win, have eroded confidence in our current economic system.

Last week Prime Minister David Cameron felt the need to ride to the defence of capitalism claiming it was the "best imaginable force for improving human wealth and happiness" ...

I was going to write about high speed rail this week and what an appallingly bad idea it was.

However, I like to think I'm modest enough to admit when someone else in the vicinity has already done it better. So for a comprehensive demolition of the HS2 project please click through to read this great blog by Malcolm Evans from Corporate Finance North West.

Instead, I'd to talk about a major event taking place in Liverpool in March - the Global Entrepreneurship Congress (GEC) ...

Liverpool-born author Robert Tressell wrote his now classic novel - The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists - more than 100 years ago.

It revolves around the lives of a group of impoverished workmen in the fictional town of Mugsborough. Early on in the book one of the workmen delivers a tirade about how foreigners were coming to England to "steal our jobs". Sound familiar?

A century on and we're still hearing the same tired old refrain - that migrants are to blame for many of our economic ills. I despair each time I hear it. Will we ever move on? ...

There's a scene in the TV comedy series Alan Partridge where Steve Coogan's hapless alter ego is making a desperate attempt to impress a BBC executive by reeling off a collection of bizarre ideas for programmes.

"Monkey tennis ... Youth hostelling with Chris Eubank," he says taking the maxim of 'there's no such thing as a bad idea' to ridiculous extremes.

Which brings me to Mary Portas - the 'Queen of Shops' - who earlier this year was asked by Prime Minister to investigate why so many shops are going bust and so many retail premises are lying empty ...

There was a great Hollywood film a few years ago called Get Shorty, a comedy starring John Travolta and Danny DeVito which included the catchline "attitude plays a part".

Travolta played the role of Chili Palmer, a gangster who had ambitions to be a movie director. He oozed self-belief and against all the odds achieved his dream.

Unlikely as it may seem, I thought of John Travolta this week when I interviewed Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg ...

In a recent tirade against the madness of asset bubbles I pointed out that credit was an essential mix in a healthy market economy.

And so it is but I wonder if perhaps we still need a fundamental change in attitude to both personal, business and Government borrowing.

In his Autumn Statement Chancellor George Osborne announced a credit-easing programme to underwrite up to £40bn in low-interest loans to small and medium-sized firms ...

According to the CBI, 190m work days were lost in the UK last year due to sickness absence with each employee taking an average of 6.5 days off ill. This is an increase on the 2009 figure of 6.4 sick days per employee.

The CBI's Absence and Workplace Health Survey estimates the annual cost to UK industry is £17bn, including more than £2.7bn from 30.4m days in sickies - unauthorised days off where there is no illness at all.

So in this context, the proposal that GPs should no longer be able to sign people off sick for longer periods seems a sensible one. But is it really that simple?

"We blew our brains out on property," said Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive Stephen Hester when I interviewed him in Liverpool last year.

He was of course talking about RBS's dabblings in the property market prior to the 2008 meltdown.

But in truth, he could be talking about Western society as a whole ...

Back in 2009 I wrote front page stories for the Daily Post and the Liverpool Echo revealing Jaguar Land Rover's plans to bring production of the Evoque model to Halewood, creating 1,000 new jobs at the plant.

This was big news for Merseyside and, behind the scenes, there was a little tension between Knowsley and Liverpool over grabbing a share of the glory.

I had quotes to use from Knowsley Council leader Ron Round and the then Liverpool City Council leader, Warren Bradley. Cllr Round's 'people' suggested to me that it was only fair his quotes should be the more prominent as the factory was in fact in Knowsley ...