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]

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]

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]

Just over a year in, and debate still rages about the coalition government’s approach to reducing the UK deficit. Is it, as the Chancellor would have us believe, a necessary strategy in order to maintain the confidence of international monetary markets and the IMF, or, as Ed Balls would conten... [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]