Civil unrest

Let engineers make Britain great again

In a quick scan through I think I saw the name 'Dilbert' there; one could do worse than sign up to Mr. Adams' daily bit of genius on the plight of engineers stateside.

I graduated with a Civ. Eng back in the lat 70's, but only on the strict understanding I didn't try and build anything people's lives depended on. Fair enough, and advertising has been mostly kind to me.

Of my graduating class, even back then I doubt more than 10% stayed in the profession for long, and those mostly the guys from the Far East. Almost all my mates ended up as Masters of the Universe in the City; not sure how that is working out now, mind.

I now busy myself with things of a planetary-positive nature, combining my science/engineering education with my media experiences to try and make the world a better place based on a principle I have dubbed the enviROI, basically a measure of how products or initiatives perform in a way that will actually make a positive difference to my kids' futures.

And I have to say that the lack of many... any with even a basic understanding of practical realities in senior government is a worry. And if they do have 'qualified' advisers, these guys don't seem very competent or vocal at setting them straight on what can... and can't work. And that often also includes saving money.

I seem to recall the 'unofficial' motto of either my college (Kings) or the profession was 'An engineer can do for a shilling what any other darn fool can do for a pound'.

Looking at the vast black holes being spun in the the world of green, all I see are targets, box-ticking and lobbyist-fueled agendas that would make any true engineer weep.

We're now in an era of process over product, and being seen to do rather than actually doing anything.

It's a house of cards on near zero foundations. I may not have been the best engineer, but I can see the result a mile off.

And that... really sucks.