A figure keeps cropping up that suggests the average age of a construction worker is in the 50s and the industry is getting older by the day. That makes for a good scare story. But is it true? The story came up again in a construction economics meeting I was at last week. One anecdote suggested the faces on site looked 10 years older than 10 years ago. Could this be real, the effects of recession-related stress on hard-working construction…
I had a conversation this morning with Jules Birch about the irritating and downright misleading way statistics are often used. This misuse may be intended or accidental, but the net result is the same. People are fed a distorted picture of reality which influences their view of the world. More worryingly, the misleading meanings ascribed to these statistics are repeated as facts, because they appear to be supported by hard numbers. The world becomes more ignorant and more adamant about…
In January 2009 Sir Mervyn King, former Governor of the Bank of England, made a speech at a CBI dinner in Nottingham in which he discussed “the paradox of policy”. This speech was delivered at a time of was frenzied speculation and high anxiety over how policy makers were responding to the global financial crisis. He said: “This is the paradox of policy at present – almost any policy measure that is desirable now appears diametrically opposite to the direction…