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Talking about something other than booze, birds and football might just save a life. Today, 10 September, is World Suicide Prevention Day. This is a subject that is close to my heart having lost a business partner to suicide a few years back. But it is also a subject that should be close to the…Read moreRead more

Why the tower blocks should come down, despite the migrant crisis. Only those of us with a lump of granite where our heart should be will have failed to have been moved by the pictures of Aylan Kurdi’s lifeless body lying abandoned on a beach; a visceral and unforgettable image that encapsulated the migrant crisis…Read moreRead more

Insufficient sleep impairs the brain like alcohol. So are your workers getting enough kip? I am not a morning person. Until I have several cups of coffee and a scan of the morning’s headlines on board, I am generally best avoided. I have always admired those early risers that can apparently cram 48 hours into…Read moreRead more

The true human cost of a demolition company that lost its focus. I honestly thought I had written all there was to write about the late lamented Euro Dismantling Services, the once formidable but sadly defunct multi-national decommissioning and demolition company. Along with the wider trade press, I had charted the company’s highs. When the…Read moreRead more

Yet another bridge collapse throws spotlight onto unnecessary desire to keep roads open. There are certain things in life that are just so ludicrously dangerous that they should require no formal risk assessment as they just scream “DON’T!” – Understating your body weight just prior to a bungee jump for example; sleeping with the wife…Read moreRead more

A look back at PlantworX 2015; a worthy successor to SED at its Whipsnade best.

Conservationists are using social media to oppose demolition. Should we fight fire with fire? Despite our inherent cynicism, the British people eventually rallied behind the London 2012 Olympics to make the Games one of the most engaging and unifying events in the nation’s history. Londoners happily point to iconic buildings such as The Shard, The…Read moreRead more

There is no shame in depression. I did not intend to write about Mental Health Awareness Week again. Come to think of it, I never set out to write about Mental Health Awareness Week yesterday either; but sometimes these things just happen. I thought a lot about that previous article overnight and I realise that,…Read moreRead more

Cracks within industry’s tough veneer where the light of humanity shines through. Thanks to my refusal to don a pair of rose-tinted bifocals before casting my eye over the demolition landscape, I have recently been accused – variously – of being anti-demolition, a doom-monger, a sensationalist and, most recently, a girl (I know, right?). Yet…Read moreRead more

Surely the time has come to end the minority rule of the industry. Let us start with a very quick maths lesson. Estimates suggest that the post-recession UK demolition industry employs somewhere in the order of 10,000 people across around 550 individual companies. The Institute of Demolition Engineers has around 400 members while around 160…Read moreRead more