In a speech in 1948, Winston Churchill famously said: “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it”. Quite how he found the time to run a country and win a world war between coining iconic phrases remains a mystery. But that’s a discussion for another day. The fact is that, in…Read moreRead more
Comment
Demolition by the book
Death of the Bootstrap Entrepreneur
Across the span of more than three decades, I have had the pleasure and the honour of interviewing countless demolition company founders. Whether they came directly to demolition or jumped across from an allied business, all those founders have shared a common theme. Each of them started with precious little in the way of money…Read moreRead more
Comment – I do declare!
It is that time of the year when many of us will be heading to the Hellhole that is the modern airport ahead of our summer vacation. Assuming you can navigate the mountains of unclaimed and misplaced baggage, the queues of disgruntled and frustrated holidaymakers and the TV news crews there to capture the chaos…Read moreRead more
Comment – The scales of justice are imbalanced
The life of a roofer is worth 27 times that of a demolition worker. That is surely the implication of a pair of recent fatal accident prosecutions: in the case of a roofer, the fine levied against the company involved was £135,000. In the case of the demolition worker, the fine was just £5,000. I…Read moreRead more
Compliant? Well, sort of…
In the field of demolition, the term “compliant” can apparently cover (or cover up) a multitude of sins.
Not all construction deaths are created equal
The Health and Safety Executive last week released its fatal accident statistics for the year to March 2022. Those stats made for interesting , troubling and perplexing reading. The headline figure was that worker deaths in the combined demolition and construction sector were down 25 percent on the previous year. But the latest HSE figures…Read moreRead more
The Federation and The Queen
When The Queen failed to return from her holiday at Balmoral and refused to fly the Union flag at half mast over Buckingham Palace in the aftermath of the death of Princess Diana, she was seen as cold, distant and aloof. There was a feeling that she had misjudged the mood of the nation. The…Read moreRead more
Opinion – BROKEN!
After a week in which I have reported on precious little aside from the revelations from the Competition and Markets Authority investigation into bid-rigging and price-fixing within the UK demolition industry, I was planning to take a step backwards to give myself some fresh perspective; and to possibly find a reason – aside from the…Read moreRead more
John F. Hunts sets aside £5.6 million…
CMA provisions made by NFDC members hit £23 million; and we’re not even at the halfway point. Demolition contractor John F Hunt has become the latest firm to reveal how much it says its involvement with bid-rigging will cost it. The company is one of 10 that cartel-buster the Competition and Markets Authority publicly named…Read moreRead more
Comment – What the Hell happened to us…?
Several years ago, I was visiting a demolition site in the south of England. It was a large site; large enough to warrant a dedicated on-site canteen. After a morning touring the site, the managing director of the demolition company involved (who shall remain nameless) and I adjourned to said canteen, both of us craving…Read moreRead more
