Spam Alert! Do you trust this email?

At this point for Rishi Sunak, words are just noises that are used to help get him to the end of the latest bruising interaction with the media and general public.

But right at the start of his tenure as Prime Minister he pledged ‘integrity, professionalism and accountability’ from his government in all that they do. Maybe they were just noises to make while looking stately at a podium with HM Government logos on it back then too.

I say this because during an election campaign that has already been plagued by disputed facts and a range of people discovered to have been betting on inside information about election dates (ALLEGEDLY, GAMBLING COMMISSION, INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION, IT WOULD BE WRONG TO COMMENT ETC) I received this email from the Conservatives this morning, posing as an email from Tax Check UK.

Back in May 2023 the Government announced a crackdown on these kind of emails that are not what they seem as part of a new fraud strategy.

But it looks like the Conservative Party are now a gamekeeper turned poacher.

What’s the difference between this approach and email scammers telling you to click on a link because of an undelivered Amazon package? Where is the integrity in this approach from the Conservative Party??

The Labour Party has the election fund begging bowl out too. I receive about five of these e-chugger type comms every day at the moment.

Thank God there is only one week left of this election.

Change is in the air

There has been a number of stories in the construction media pointing towards a ‘changing of the guard’ across the construction sector.

Ray O’Rourke stepping down as the Chief Executive of Laing O’Rourke has gathered the most headlines, but there are also key changes at the Home Builders Federation with long term Chief Executive Stewart Baseley being replaced by Neil Jefferson.

Meanwhile, at taps and bathroom component manufacturer Bristan, current CEO Martin Mongan will retire at the end of the year and be replaced with Jen Cassidy, who has been at the company since 2021. It’s important to see more women in the key roles throughout the supply chain, and hopefully there will be more of these kind of announcements in the coming years.

British homes for British birds

Here’s a happy story in the usually grumpy Construction Enquirer: twenty of the country’s biggest house builders have signed up the Homes for Nature commitment, which will see bird-nesting bricks installed in every new home, as well as ‘hedgehog highways’ on every new development.

The commitment is in addition to the recently implemented Biodiversity Net Gain regulations, which require all new developments to achieve 10% more wildlife.

Ed Lockhart, chief executive of the Future Homes Hub, said: “Homes for Nature is a fantastic opportunity to create many more homes for wildlife, bring people closer to nature and at the same time provide a helping hand to some much-loved and critically endangered species.”

Lets just hope the Reform Party, which is dead set against the Net Zero agenda while pledging Net Zero immigration don’t start getting hot under the collar about birds migrating from Africa during the summer. Got to keep out the Chiffchaff.