It gets my goat to be addressed as "Stephen" by perfect strangers - often as not PRs.

When I was a cub City reporter I sat next to an old hand who used "Sir" and "Madam" when on the phone.

I adopted this style for many years until it seemed just too old-fashioned but I never dream of adopting first name familiarities.

Americans and continental Europeans use the polite forms and I wish we did too.

In my Morning Meeting comment column, which runs Tuesday to Saturdays on the City & Business pages of the Daily Express, I have long given up arguing the case that "professional sportsperson" is a contradiction in terms and that in any sane world people would not be paid for playing games.

I still can't get golf though - the sight of grown men chasing a small ball with a long stick around the countryside for money is nothing short of comic.

But I fail to understand why there is not the same outrage directed, at say, what soccer and pop stars are paid which can be well in excess of the salary of a top chief executive.

As nice a chap as I'm sure David Beckham is, he doesn't have the same responsibility on his shoulders of what can be tens of thousands of staff, hundreds of thousands of shareholders and millions of customers.

A successful boardroom helps generate the taxes that build our schools and hospitals as well as a rising share price which pumps up the valuation of pension fund managed on our behalf by institution...

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