For a government that says it is in favour of introducing elected mayors into our major cities, including Manchester, the Minister for local government and the cronies in his department appear to be hell bent on peeing off as many people in the North West as possible before putting the issue to a ... [More]

Downtown has just come to the end of our ‘Business Week’ season. Every year, we have a five day programme of events that focuses on business and entrepreneurs in each of the locations where we operate, and this last week we have been in Liverpool, where over 400 delegates attended the fi... [More]

When the late, great Tony Wilson and I used to debate the merits or otherwise of Liverpool and Manchester, the enigmatic TV presenter and broadcaster used to say that the biggest problem with Scousers was our wonderful ability to celebrate bad news. He contended that if Jaguar announced a programme... [More]

I must confess that I greeted the news that  Unesco and its World Heritage Committee (yawn) were to review Liverpool’s World Heritage Status with some glee. The badge, from what I can tell, has brought little if any benefit to the city, and has most certainly cost Liverpool in terms of j... [More]

How is the economy performing at the moment? What sectors are strong, which are weak? Are the banks really open for business? Does the business community feel confident? These are all questions that are being frequently asked by commentators and politicians as the UK economy struggles to convince m... [More]