Down and out in Paris and London by George Orwell.
May31

Down and out in Paris and London by George Orwell.

It’s a great book for telling us about Europe between the wars; but also because of what can it tell us about today, in particular homelessness?

Read More
Risk and the construction industry
May13

Risk and the construction industry

Understandably, Health and Safety has been a major concern for workers, unions and health and safety organisations for many years. However, in the age of coronavirus there is a growing perception that all jobs must be “safe”.

Read More
Working Practices: East v West
Apr16

Working Practices: East v West

The efficiency drive in China means that architects and construction workers have to work very hard to meet deadlines and it is very difficult to keep a work-life balance. In the west, this is often all architects talk about.

Read More
Chernobyl Fallout
Mar26

Chernobyl Fallout

The virus thrives on the essential elements of social life, such as the need to socialise, the importance of proximity, or the desire to comfort. To defeat the virus, we are told that we have to become reclusive.

Read More
Coronavirus
Jan29

Coronavirus

The recent outbreak of coronavirus in the central city of Wuhan has created something resembling mass hysteria in the newsrooms of Western broadcast journalism This article explores some of the myths and realities.

Read More
Election odds
Dec09

Election odds

Gamble on the election while you can. Soon afterwards having a flutter will once again be under attack by establishment Puritans… or simply by those people who think you have a ‘problem’.

Read More
Generation Wars
Sep21

Generation Wars

On Friday 20th September, I joined the children, parents and teachers gathering in Manchester for the Climate Strike where Mayor Burnham proudly announced: “Our generation has failed you. I’m not arguing with you. We are giving you your voice and power.”

Read More
Book Bites: Paul Morland’s “The Human Tide”
Aug03

Book Bites: Paul Morland’s “The Human Tide”

Once the Malthusian link is broken and enough food and liberating technology is available, progress begins to feed through to the general population.

Read More
Milton’s Paradise Regained
May30

Milton’s Paradise Regained

If we are to build a new city, then Milton Keynes represents the experiential cornerstone. It symbolises the kind of bold, creative masterplanning that we desperately need but haven’t seen the like of since those crazy days of the 1960s.

Read More
China’s environmental transformation
Jan29

China’s environmental transformation

“The environment” has long exercised the minds of the Chinese government. It was one of the first developing nations to introduce sustainable development on a national and regional policy level and it rewrote its Constitution way back in 1982 – five years before the Brundtland Report – pledging to “protect the environment”.

Read More