All articles by Alistair McAlpine

  • Comment

    The race for second place

    2005-03-04T00:00:00Z

    Waking up to find that the Tories have regained popularity is certainly a strange feeling. Maybe they can fail a bit better this time

  • Comment

    Glory days

    2004-11-26T00:00:00Z

    Our building sites are bloodless descendants of the sites of the roaring 50s, when men were men, lavatories were buckets and passers-by were fair game

  • Comment

    Bleeding edge design

    2004-07-16T00:00:00Z

    The construction industry is in a state of permanent revolution, which puts a lot of pressure on those of us who have to build things

  • Comment

    Why the Tories will win

    2004-04-02T00:00:00Z

    The government's refusal to treat the construction industry as the special case it is has made it very difficult for Labour to triumph in next year's election

  • Comment

    Gruel intentions

    2003-08-01T00:00:00Z

    With the corporate killing bill on the way, should company directors be going on courses preparing them for a life of snout, slopping out and table tennis?

  • Comment

    Machiavelli's advice

    2003-06-27T00:00:00Z

    What does the future hold for contractors? History can give us some of the answers – and so can a well known renaissance philosopher

  • Comment

    Our blood, our money

    2003-04-17T00:00:00Z

    The battle for contracts in Iraq has begun. As we were in the firing line, we ought to get a fair share of the work – before the French find a way back in

  • Comment

    O'Rourke's drift

    2003-02-14T00:00:00Z

    So Ray O'Rourke's fusiliers are going to make £55,000 a year while they put up Terminal 5, are they? Maybe, but they'll have to win some battles first …

  • Comment

    Eyes wide shut

    2002-11-08T00:00:00Z

    If we're going to seize our inauspicious economy by the horns, companies need to stop kidding themselves that things are better than they really are

  • Comment

    Business as usual

    2002-04-26T00:00:00Z

    The City largely ignores construction, believing it to be far too risky an enterprise. We should return the compliment and just get on with making money

  • Comment

    Why Blair should worry

    2002-03-01T00:00:00Z

    Scandal to a politician is like manure to a pig farmer – an inevitable, if not enjoyable, part of the job. However, it can prise power from the strongest PMs

  • Comment

    A leaf from their book

    2002-01-11T00:00:00Z

    Europeans have a great deal to teach us about the arts, politeness, preserving cultural differences – and about a taste for real food

  • Comment

    Backtrack

    2001-11-23T00:00:00Z

    Railway privatisation has been an almighty cock-up. To put things right, the government will have to bite the bullet and spend, spend, spend

  • Comment

    Cometh the hour …

    2001-09-28T00:00:00Z

    If Iain Duncan Smith's election was remarkable, so are the global and national challenges he'll have to face. And he might just be the man for the job

  • Comment

    Let's stay together

    2001-07-27T00:00:00Z

    Ken Clarke and Iain Duncan Smith should make a deal, rather than spending the summer slugging it out with each other. Some chance …

  • Comment

    What a shower!

    2001-06-15T00:00:00Z

    The Tories' performance in the election was embarrassing, hopeless, abysmal – which isn't surprising when you look at the calibre of those in charge

  • Features

    After the fire

    2001-04-06T00:00:00Z

    Alistair McAlpine - That we have turned the countryside into a charnel house is horrific. It is also a unique opportunity to create a less polluting, more humane farming system

  • Comment

    A death in the family

    2001-02-16T00:00:00Z

    First person - There isn't exactly a rush to buy Laing, but with funeral costs mounting, the owners need to appoint an undertaker soon.

  • ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉúTV

    Management buyout is the best hope for a secure future

    2000-11-24T00:00:00Z

    MORE than 150 years ago, John Laing started his construction company; now it is up for sale, writes ºÃÉ«ÏÈÉúTV columnist Alistair McAlpine.

  • Comment

    Limited opposition

    2000-11-10T00:00:00Z

    With so many chinks in the government's armour – everything from cows to petrol – why are the Tories failing to strike?