Blogs

The New Year signifies a brand new start for us, literally here at Carvers.

The cliché goes that a week is a long time in politics, so it ought to follow that a year is a very long time in merchanting. Not so it seems. I've returned from 13 months on maternity leave to find that many, many things about the industry are exactly as I left them.

Anyone working in heavyside manufacturing must feel that that the light at the end of the tunnel is, in fact, that of a train and it's is getting ever closer.

The radical student that I used to be was rather horrified to find that I was agreeing with something that David Cameron, leader of the Conservative Party said. I guess that's what age and responsibility does for you.

Wandering round the NMBS Exhibition the other week, I was struck by a rather curious idea. Maybe, just maybe, things aren't quite as bad as we had been thinking them.

Britain was once described as a 'nation of shopkeepers'. Now that nice Shadow Housing Minister Grant Shapps, wants to turn it into a nation of housebuilders.

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

It strikes me that there's something of the 'this is going to hurt me more than it hurts you' about tomorrow's Emergency Budget.

This government Green Deal is starting to look a little bit more complicated. Now climate minister Greg Barker has announced (at a Tory Conference fringe meeting) that big retailers like Tesco, Marks & Spencer and B&Q could be selling insulation and home energy efficiency measures under the deal as a way of getting more householders…

Ever get that feeling, when listening to a presentation, that the person giving it has X-ray vision straight into your brain and you therefore totally and utterly agree with what they are saying?