In less than a month, the industry will pause once again to reflect on the loss of four of their demolition brothers in what still ranks as the worst demolition accident in living memory. It will be the fourth time the industry has done so since the catastrophic collapse of the boiler house at Didcot…Read moreRead more
Comment
Comment – The What and the Why…
Comment – Consistently inconsistent…
Fine handed down after site fatality highlights fickle nature of legal system. It is just 48 hours since I – like so many before me – labelled the law an ass. But with uncustomary haste, the legal profession has today proved itself so be so much worse than that. With a single ruling, it has…Read moreRead more
State of Emergency…?
According to Wikipedia, a State of Emergency is defined as “…a situation in which a government is empowered to perform actions that it would normally not be permitted to do. Such declarations alert citizens to change their normal behaviour…” Now I realise that the UK demolition industry does not have its own stand-alone government as…Read moreRead more
Curse of the keyboard warrior…
This is NOT a Halloween tale. But it is a horror story. Just under a week ago, a demolition crew in New Orleans was waiting for the sun to come up to allow them to make their final preparations ahead of a high profile explosive demolition job that would be watched live by thousands of…Read moreRead more
Comment – So what IS the answer..?
The UK demolition industry has reached a crossroads. An industry friend and sparring partner has recently read my somewhat controversial article “where’s your fury” in which I lambasted the wider demolition industry for its ongoing failure to address accidents and curtail fatalities. Having read the article in question, that friend asked me – simply –…Read moreRead more
Comment – Where is your fury…?
Two more demolition workers killed. Now what? Profanity, it is said, is the last refuge of the truly ignorant. Well get ready because I am about to be as truly ignorant as it is possible to be. If you have an issue with bad language, stop now. So I find myself, yet again, reporting upon…Read moreRead more
So many questions…
The report that echoed around the world. It is less than a week since we published our preliminary report on the catastrophic scaffold collapse in Reading, and already the article has become our most-read and most-shared story of the past 12 months. Even though it was written to address a British incident and a British…Read moreRead more
Comment – Didcot’s end draws closer…
…and why we won’t be showing it. For some, it will mark the beginning of the end. For others, it will be merely the opening pages of a final chapter almost four years in the making; another painful reminder of an avoidable tragedy that unfolded to claim the lives of four working men back in…Read moreRead more
Comment – An industry tarnished
Millions of man hours without incident. But the public will know us for this. All the meetings, seminars and conferences. All the training courses, CPD points, toolbox talks and site inductions. All the advances in equipment and technology. All the supposed benefits of site audits and Health & Safety Executive policing. All the strides made…Read moreRead more
Calling the “Thought Leaders”
Time to take a step back in order to look forward. Many moons ago, back when I still believed that wordsmithery might hold the key to my fame and fortune, I met with a business consultant. Much of what he said was nonsense; advice regurgitated from some source or another that he would trot out…Read moreRead more
