Where's it going to end? First Connaught and now Rok, the latest high-profile building services company to go to the wall. The repercussions of failures such as these stretch far beyond the hundreds of job losses - the administrator announced 755 to go at Rok just this morning. As our story on Monday shows, the…

There's a bit of a row down on the south coast. Fareham Borough Council, in Hampshire has approved plans for an eco-town, which were submitted under the last government.

So here we are again. Just nine months after the country ground to a halt because of the appalling snowfall in February the country is now 'whited-out' as one particularly enthusiastic local TV news reporter said last night.

So today we have one builders merchant group less than we had yesterday.

I'm not really one for looking back, but man, am I glad to have seen the back of 2010.

I'm English. And a bit of a softie. I am, therefore, fated to be forever swayed by the plight of the underdog.

There was quite a lot of noise on the web last night regarding Mary Portas - she of the orange bobbed hair and power-dressed heels - and self-styled Queen of Shops. It's also been echoed on our sister site DIYWeek.net so I thought I'd take a bit of a look.

Question: How many Health and Safety consultants does it take to put up a Christmas light? Answer: None. It's far too dangerous to put up Christmas lights.

Looking out of my kitchen window as I write this at a rainstorm of Noah-esque proportions, I think one might be forgiven for wondering if there is such a thing as a water shortage in this country.

This might turn into something of a rant, but bear with me.