Blogs

It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade. I really, really hate the thought of being one of those commentators who is always talking things down for the sake …

Keep your face always toward the sunshine — and shadows will fall behind you. Those of us with longish memories will recall the step-change in the way homes are heated that was the net result of the changes to Part L of the Building Regulations in 2005. That was the …

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water I was at an event a few weeks ago with some merchants and suppliers. All more or less agreed on two things. 1, that things are, and have been for some time, about as bad as anyone …

If your conduct is determined solely by considerations of profit you will arouse great resentment There are a few things that mark one out as a proper grown-up. Utterances that make you realise that the age of innocence is over, and the cold hard reality of getting through life is …

Through me you enter into the city of woe. I don’t know where to start on all this. As a small child I remember asking my parents why there were such long queues at the petrol station, to be told it was because of the Yom Kippur war in the …

Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all It is – or it should be – a truth universally acknowledged that the yard-sale of government owned utilities has not been an unmitigated success. Far from …

No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it for anyone else It was National Apprenticeship Week last week. How do I know this? I know this because my email inbox was awash with news releases highlighting it. There were case studies galore, comment, news pieces, …

That time offer’d sorrow; This, general joy. Talk to builders and they all say they are really busy. But the question that comes to mind is this: are they busy-busy because there’s so much work on? Or are they busy because they are doing “more with less” to quote Teresa …

There are some promotions in life, which, independent of the more substantial rewards they offer, acquire peculiar value and dignity The wider world is just a bit too horrible to contemplate writing about this week, so, for once, I’m going to stick to stuff that’s more relevant to the day-job. …

How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is To have a thankless child Alas, poor Jenrick. I knew him; a fellow who likes the spotlight. Having been bested by Kemi Badenoch in the race for leadership of the Conservative Party – doing rather better than many predicted – Robert Jenrick …