Imagine you work at a McDonalds restaurant (other burger chains are available…). You start out flipping burgers or taking orders but you work hard and you’re never late. Your dedication is spotted and you get a promotion, and then another. Pretty soon, you are a line manager with people reporting to you directly. A year…Read moreRead more
Comment
Opinion – Time to tackle industry drink/drug crisis
Opinion – Super Fuel or Duper Fuel
It is less than a week since I published an article highlighting how the environmental lobby had adopted a “by any means necessary” approach to carbon reduction. How the world had set sail towards a sustainable future without checking the likely travel conditions. How the Road to Zero was seen purely as a destination, with…Read moreRead more
Opinion – Destination over journey
In 2001, the European Union ratified an item of legislation called the Large Combustion Plant Directive to limit flue gas emissions from a variety of fossil-fuelled power plant, specifying – in particular – emission limits for sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and dust. Under the terms of the directive, combustion plants built after 1987 had to…Read moreRead more
Opinion – Demolition equipment is NOT a lifestyle sell
Have you noticed how the latest wave of TV advertisements for mobile phones seem to mention everything EXCEPT the function for which the device was originally invented? The manufacturers will talk at length about how you can now shoot cinematic video on one of the numerous cameras packed into the device. How people can be…Read moreRead more
Opinion – Why THIS Bauma matters
“Construction exhibitions are a barometer of industry sentiment and sector confidence”. Although it took a well-earned and long-overdue break during the COVID-19 pandemic when exhibitions went into an enforced stasis, that is a cliché I have heard trotted out for some three decades now. Cliché or not, there is some truth in that statement. And…Read moreRead more
Opinion – Awareness is not the same as Action
Have you ever seen an abandoned car by the side of the road? It might be the aftermath of an accident; it may have been ditched by a joy-rider; maybe it just broke down. But the car is swathed in blue and white tape that proclaims “Police Aware”. Or have you ever been walking through…Read moreRead more
Opinion – A dangerous precedent
In February 2016, the boiler house of the Didcot A Power Station partially collapsed, claiming the lives of four demolition workers. The investigation into that incident remains ongoing. In September 2019, two men were killed on a demolition site at Redcar in horrific circumstances. That investigation also remains ongoing. On Thursday 29 September 2022, a…Read moreRead more
Opinion – The Mark Noble way
You will have to bear with me. The story I am about to lay before you really IS rooted in demolition, even if at first it might feel like an excuse for me to talk about my beloved (and beleaguered) West Ham United. Mark Noble has just been appointed as Sporting Director at West Ham…Read moreRead more
Opinion – The farce of industry awards
The latest outing of the Construction News Specialist Awards saw AR Demolition deservedly emerge victorious in THREE categories. Meanwhile, the awards served to highlight the farce of awards sponsorship by interested parties, and the industry’s willingness to award those identified in a £150 million bid rigging scandal that has brought the entire industry into disrepute.
Opinion – The forgotten fatalities
Later this week, I am due to speak to the BBC yet again about the Didcot Power Station disaster that happened in February 2016. Unlike many of their colleagues in the wider media, the BBC thankfully hasn’t forgotten the incident that claimed the lives of four men on that fateful day. We are fast approaching…Read moreRead more
