Comment
'The times they are a-changing'.
Who would have thought Brexit would trigger the Apocalypse? With plagues of locusts sweeping across the Asian and African continents, all we are waiting for is for four horsemen to show up. The issues with Brexit are mere chickenfeed compared to the increasingly frequent and severe flooding we are witnessing (on a global basis) and the ramifications of Covid19. The first, a consequence of changing weather patterns, invokes the emotional response that we should respond by throwing more money at the problem to improve flood defences – the second, however, threatens lives, lifestyles, industries, travel, the financial stability of countries and, finally, governments. The pandemic, if we are allowed to call it that now, is spreading and whilst some countries appear to be coping with it, others are woefully unprepared or unable to cope with outbreaks effectively through a lack of resources.
We have more to say about flooding in the next issue of the magazine – an increasingly important and perennial topic for the early issues, it seems - and are hesitant to claim special circumstances for the UK Construction Industry. We don't stand isolated from the rest of the community. We are possibly going to be faced with whole cities being locked down as they did in China with travel restrictions around the country and a shortage of labour and locally sourced construction resources and materials. It's not an industry where you can work from home, but neither is it dependent on vital components from China or other Asian countries. We are not liable, either, to be asked to knock up 1000 bed hospitals in a couple of weeks. It is, though, going to be a period of change, where we not only have to handle a changing relationship with our European partners, come to grips with a whole slew of new rules and regulations, but also to learn to work within an evolving global epidemic.
Now... about this theory that London is at the lower end of a massive tilting tectonic plate which apparently has Kent and Sussex sinking, leaving the Northern counties higher and drier....
David Chadwick
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