I didn't get to go to the RICS election hustings event that Building magazine and Property Week ran last night but I rather wish I had. However, thanks to the miracle of modern technology, I've been made aware of some of the promises/ideas/pledges that were heard by the audience.

How come, it takes three successive quarters of contraction before we're officially allowed to say it's a recession, yet a measly 0.1% growth in one quarter is enough for the government to claim all its panic-efforts have worked and that the UK is out of the woods?

Last week, Huws Gray left the NBG buying group on the grounds that the company's expansion plans simply won't allow it to comfortably remain a partner in the group. The news took many people by surprise as Huws Gray's John Jones and Terry Owen have always been some of the most enthusiastic of the group's…

Those Meet the Merchant/Supplier speed dating events are a really good idea, aren't they?

Paul Morrell, the UK construction 'tsar' says that the construction industry doesn't have the same government respect as the car industry.

I'm going back onto my soapbox about the boiler scrappage scheme again. Bear with me, but there's been quite a lot of misinformation about it and I want to let off some steam.

The city is a fickle creature isn't it.

So Ecobuild's come and Ecobuild's gone. What are we left with, apart from sore feet, 'exhibition throat' and bags and bags of printed matter?

The UK has a budget deficit of £178bn and growing. Oh my, that's a lot of money.

Ouch. As if things weren't bad enough as it is at Build Center, what with the recession and everything, now the merchant has two years to prove itself or get hived off.