To the Commons where the Treasury Select Committee's inquiry into sexism in the City is going full pelt.

Labour deputy leader and equalities minister Harriet Harman launched a scathing attack on the Square Mile's treatment of women, warning City firms may lose Government contracts if they don't appoint more women.

Conservative MP Michael Fallon gave Harman a particular grilling after she disagreed with fund manager Nichola Pease who last week said that maternity laws were backfiring and hindering women's prospects.

“You haven't worked in the City Harriet. Nichola Pease has,” Fallon said. “Why do you think she's wrong? Why do your prejudices outweigh her experiences?”

Harman seemed flustered but the committee's Labour members were able to help, leaning over to say: Pease was the only woman to argue this.

… but is on egg-cellent form

Harriet Harman dominated proceedings, so much so that at one point Tory MP Graham Brady felt the need to apologise to Exchequer Secretary Sarah McCarthy-Fry — giving evidence to the committee at the same time — for “discriminating against her”.

McCarthy-Fry answered one question, then it promptly returned to being the Harriet show. She surprised the committee by suddenly turning the discussion to the subject of… eggs. A bemused committee chairman, Labour's John McFall, asked Harman to explain what she was talking about. Apparently we know more about the lives of the chickens that lay the eggs than we do about the people who work on the farm. City Spy still isn't sure exactly that this has much to do with sexism.

* Mutiny in the ranks at Currys and PC World owner DSGi, where staff have previously got in trouble with a Facebook group mocking customers. Now they have, er, set up another Facebook group, this time called “Disgruntled DSGi Employees” and hosting an open letter to the firm's bosses. First comes the plea “don't sue us”.
They write: “If you're reading — opinions are just that, opinions. You cannot legally discipline or dismiss someone for expressing an opinion.”

Wanna bet? They add: “The fact is, at the moment we are in a recession, we all know that, so perhaps rather than alienating staff and customers you should be appreciating them as they are the driving force for the company. Without customers, you would be nothing. Without staff you would be nothing. Remember that… Using scare tactics with staff is not the correct way to maintain morale and will result in customers shopping elsewhere and complete business failure.” Oh dear.

* HSBC's economics analysts are clearly feeling optimistic. In their latest research note, titled “Golden Brown”, they say they expect Chancellor Alistair Darling to be able to revise his borrowing forecasts in the pre-Budget report: from “appalling to merely very bad”.

* LAST Friday after the Cosmen family and CVC had ditched their plans to take over National Express, the stricken train and coach company's acting chief executive Ray O'Toole told the Evening Standard: “Our Plan A has always been to be an independent company and we can now set about strengthening our balance sheet. The bid has been a distraction but it is now out of the way.” This week National Express admitted it is talking to Stagecoach over a proposed all-share merger. If National Express's Plan B had been the Cosmen takeover, is selling up to arch-rival Stagecoach, Plan C, Plan D or Plan Z?

* A merged National Express-Stagecoach would see the company run all the commuter trains out of Waterloo, Euston, St Pancras, Liverpool Street and Fenchurch Street — the biggest concentration of rail service networks since, well, British Rail.

* Transatlantic fans of Le Caprice restaurant in St James's can now flock to the Manhattan version. Long-serving manager Jesus Adorno is putting the finishing touches to the New York Caprice, which opens this week. The restaurant is in the Pierre Hotel on the Upper East Side — popular hedge-fund territory — and Adorno says: “It's an easy restaurant to transport, and a lot of our regular customers in London are New Yorkers. Most of the menu is the same. There are definitely more salads, though.” The real power behind Le Caprice is Richard Caring whose favourite diet is gobbling up restaurants for his expanding empire.

Alison's the Bain of celebrity contracts at AmEx

Alison Bain, vice-president of international advertising for American Express, explains the credit-card giant's decision not to use celebrities for its most recent campaign.

Having previously used Alan Whicker, José Mourinho and Tiger Woods, she tells Marketing Magazine: “We will always be associated with iconic people who use our brand but it was a conscious decision with this campaign not to use celebrities. We wanted to have a direct conversation without cardholders, and really talk about what it is that goes into American Express.”

And presumably if that saves money by not employing some expensive celebrity that is just a happy coincidence…