If you were in charge of health and safety within the sport of Formula 1, you would rightly be judged upon the number of accidents and fatalities. If they decreased during your tenure, most would agree you were doing a good job. It is highly unlikely that your success or failure would be judged upon…Read moreRead more
Comment
Comment – Workers die while charities jostle
Comment – Only the good die young
On Thursday last week, I had the sad duty of reporting that CG Comley – better known to the UK demolition fraternity as Comley Demolition – was to pull down the shutters permanently after 63 years of trading. It is always sad to hear that a demolition company has gone under. It is doubly sad…Read moreRead more
Comment – Held together with sticking plasters
We live in an age when takeaway coffee cups carry a “Caution: Contents Hot” warning. We live in a society in which every pack of peanuts has “May Contain Nuts” emblazoned across the packaging. These warnings are there not because our streets are filled with coffee drinkers sporting third degree burns or because those with…Read moreRead more
Deadlines don’t cut both ways
I have been trying to figure out precisely why deadlines are a sword that cuts only in one direction – Downwards. What do I mean? Well imagine that a demolition contractor has been given 24, 36 or 48 hours to demolish a bridge over a road, motorway or railway track. Despite the potential hazards involved…Read moreRead more
Opinion – A little less conversation…
Imagine that you are a football manager in charge of a team that sits in 20th place in the Premier League (as a West Ham, this requires very little imagination). Your strike partnership has amassed just two goals in the past seven games; your midfield appear to be playing for the opposition; and your defence…Read moreRead more
Opinion – Mental Health Meltdown
507 construction workers – 503 of them men – took their own lives in 2021. That means the suicide rate within the construction sector is now almost four times the national average. It is worth noting that this marked a rise on the previous year that was the very height of the COVID-19 pandemic. In…Read moreRead more
Old Years’ Resolutions
I did not bother with New Year’s Resolutions this year: partly because I know from past experience that my commitment is as fleeting as a politician’s promise; but also because there are too many industry resolutions that are now far too long overdue. It is time that the demolition and construction industry truly got to…Read moreRead more
Opinion – Eschew the tools of today?
I shouldn’t have risen to it. I am a grown man, not a 12 year old girl. I know that online talk is generally just that. But every once in a while, I find myself sucked into a discussion so baseless that it needs to be addressed. I confess that I took the bait. A…Read moreRead more
Same Team, Same Frailties
I am writing this the morning after the England football team predictably crashed out of the World Cup (again) so please forgive me for the football analogies and the barely concealed disappointment. Back in 2020, the England team failed to capitalise on home advantage and lost in the final of the UEFA European Championships to…Read moreRead more
Comment – A stain upon the industry
It is shameful that, in the modern world of demolition and construction, men and women are still injured, maimed and killed in the line of duty. It is shameful that such incidents take years to investigate and come to justice. It is shameful that we continue to employ methods that have been found to be…Read moreRead more
