Just back from another trip to New Zealand – a different country from when I was last there a year ago, transformed as it is by a change of Government! To everyone’s surprise, the National Party failed to win enough seats in last year’s General...
One of the most pressing challenges for the construction sector in the UK is its appalling record on recruiting women – and then retaining and developing their careers within the industry. • Just 12.8% of the construction workforce is made up of...
It’s not often that nuclear matters make me laugh out loud. But yesterday provided one such occasion, on reading of the latest announcement from EdF that a new ‘optimised reactor’ would be unveiled in 2020 at roughly half the price (£5.3bn) of the...
Just back from another visit to KL as part of the work Forum for the Future does with Sime Darby Plantation – one of the biggest (and most sustainable!) palm oil companies in the world. Oh boy! Are they (and the Malaysian palm oil industry as a...
So what are we to make of the lionising of Michael Gove by a host of people who really should know better? His speech to the Oxford Farming Conference, and his scripting of Theresa May’s speech to launch the new 25-year Plan to Improve the...
How often have you heard something like this: ‘Well, the situation here in the UK may be dire, but things aren’t half as bad as they are in America!’ I’ve said it myself, mostly in jest, sometimes in near despair. But I had absolutely no idea how...
I still find it hard to believe that more people in this country feel we’d be better off outside the EU than remaining in the EU. For me, there are three main reasons for this astonishing outcome at the 2016 Referendum: 1. The Stronger In campaign...
You’ve got to hand it to the nuclear industry: they’re one resilient bunch of never-say-die hard-arses! By any standards, 2017 has been an annus horribilis for the industry, with one body blow after another, all around the world. And 2016 wasn’t...
(With reference to my blog last week, the Sheffield tree story is now reaching a crunch point. Last week, Green Party Councillor Alison Teal was found not guilty of breaching Sheffield City Council’s injunction against protestors, and Colin Payne...
I’ve had a really odd summer – with a knee replacement operation that went badly wrong. And this somehow blocked my creative juices, both in terms of campaigning stuff and blogging. So I decided it was time to put things right on Thursday last week...
