Hit the right buttons on the terminal and out pops attractive brunette fun-loving vivacious blonde well-groomed granny and all the rest of the cliches

Hit the right buttons on the terminal, and out pops "attractive brunette", "fun-loving vivacious blonde", "well-groomed granny" and all the rest of the cliches that diminish women of every rank and profession by commenting on their appearance and character.So far, so good All except chauvinist pigs can agree on this. We ran a rousing defence of Ms Nicholson, denouncing her sexist detractors.)Most news decisions are still taken by men. Eighteen out of the 19 national and Sunday papers are edited by men. Most newsrooms still feel heavily male-dominated, testosterone-driven, with laddishness oozing from the very templates of what makes news. (In case you were wondering, yes, the Independent can be smug.

Her defection is a dramatic gesture, gratifying to her personal opinions and fulfilling a psychic need, but it will have the opposite effect from the one she wants to make." Now even if Ms Nicholson's brain were to be found inferior to Mr Howarth's, what's all this "psychic need" and "dramatic gesture" stuff? Just up-market code for silly, vain and menopausal. The worst he got was from the Sun: "batty", "bizarre" and "eccentric".It was not just the tabloids. Consider the magisterial Hugo Young, grand old buffer of the Guardian: "The Howarth Testament insinuates itself into the party bloodstream and will dominate its body politic at Blackpool (He will be the subtext of all consciences. Other decent Tories should listen to him and wake up)."But what did Archbishop Young have to say of the MP of conscience who did listen and wake up? "Emma Nicholson is an admirable woman but not a serious politician. She was throughout called "Emma", though nobody called Howarth "Alan", a revealing and patronising habit in all the press - viz Virginia, Gillian and Harriet. So "Emma" endured scorn and vindictiveness, jokes about her voice and appearance, while Mr Howarth, though vilified by some Tory papers, escaped any personal abuse, comments on his appearance or investigation of his private life. Their prime example is the defection of two Tory MPs - Alan Howarth and Emma Nicholson. They called her a "wicked witch", "frightful bitch", "menopausal", "vain and silly", "muddled pseudo-feminist" and even "not the first women to fall for Ashdown's charms" (while the Daily Mail, of course, went straight for her private life and found a wronged wife).

The company faces only limited competition, allowing margins to widen The shares were little changed at 376p They came to market at 135p in October 1994.. Women are treated worse by the press than men - the news will hardly make you choke on your muesli. An influential group of women in print, called Women in Journalism (WiJ), celebrates its first anniversary by publishing research comparing the press treatment of women and men Yes, they find, women are sadly traduced. Its best ever session occurred just after last year's launch. Tradepoint's shares held at 140p; they have recently felt the weight of selling from Canada reflecting the likely delisting in Vancouver where the company achieved much of its early backing.Servisair, operating ground support services to large airlines, should continue to push profits higher, believes stockbroker Wise Speke It looks for pounds 7.4m this year and pounds 9m next. James Capel lifted its forecast for HSBC from pounds 4.1bn to pounds 4.4bn; the shares rose 15p to 1,028p.Meconic, the speciality chemical group, jumped 32p to 267p following a pounds 6m acquisition of a corrosive chemicals business.TAKING STOCKTradepoint, the small order-driven rival to the Stock Exchange, had its second busiest day since it started trading, turning over 7.5 million shares with deals in Granada catching the eye.

On Ofex Cambridge Mineral Resources traded at 5.5p.Warburg did a demolition job on George Wimpey. A profits downgrading the day after the building industry had been spurred by optimistic housing forecasts chopped the shares 12p to 147p.Arjo Wiggins Appleton eased 2p to 176p on reports of a cautious analysts meeting and Boots investment presentation left the shares a shade firmer at 587p. Yet there is no doubt many of the small investors who applied for the shares were blissfully ignorant of the pending sale.The placing was executed at 170p, prompting those who paid 175p to feel peeved.Argyll, the Safeway superstores chain, indulged in a share buyback through Barclays de Zoete Wedd and Panmure Gordon. The securities groups had no difficulty picking up the 60 million shares (5.25 per cent) at 346p.The two placings accounted for more than 200 million of the day's share trading.In a dull drugs sector Zeneca shaded 6p to 1,434p after reporting its new treatment for advanced breast cancer had been approved for use in Austria, Germany and Italy.Vocalis, a speech recognition products group, made a strong debut; against a 95p placing price the shares closed at 118p Independent British Healthcare had a volatile start The shares touched 95p, ending at 70p Deals were undertaken at 69.5p and 67p. A 60 million buyback by Argyll went smoothly; so did a 41.5 million exercise involving Jarvis Hotels.But Jarvis, which came the market only a fortnight ago, found itself the centre of controversy as Candover, the venture capitalist which backed the group in its early days, unloaded its 25 per cent shareholding through UBS and SBC Warburg.Jarvis opened its market life at a premium of 15p to its 175p flotation price and there must be speculation whether the share sale would have been so well received if it had been known Candover intended to be such a quick fire seller.It was suggested the market, meaning institutional investors, was aware of Candover's short term ambitions. Such a move could have misled some of those so busily chasing Yorkshire shares.The FT-SE 100 index barely stirred, moving just 0.1 point higher; the second line index fared a little better.Trading was moderate with turnover inflated by special share deals.

Granada is thought to have re-arranged much of its debt burden at more favourable terms and an announcement about the new financing is imminent. 8 per cent interest.It could be argued Granada has its work cut out absorbing Forte, the catering and hotel group it took over after a furious pounds 3.9bn encounter, early this year.But there are signs more hotel sales are near, lowering the group's sky high borrowings. And Granada has let it be known it is not at all disturbed by its already high gearing and it feels it could comfortably accommodate the pounds 750m Yorkshire acquisition.There were, as always, suggestions the speculators may have their wires crossed. Yorkshire shares were then 1,148p.Granada left the rest of the broadcasting industry looking flat footed when it increased its Yorkshire stake. The regional television group has for long been regarded as a big prize for the TV barons.