Your ‘cross-section’ was no such thing

I was interested to note the hopes and fears of your ‘Twelve Good Men and True’ in the January edition. It is unfortunate that, firstly, there was the usual gender singularity and, secondly, your respondents were unrepresentative of our Institute and industry in my opinion.

The vast proportion of people employed in construction work for small firms generously spread around the UK. It is good to relate that an increasing number now are female.

I have no doubt that your respondents are worthy individuals. The only one of them that I have had the pleasure of meeting certainly is, but I’ll spare his blushes by not identifying him. Nevertheless, why do we stick to the hoary old chestnut that the comments of ‘the great and the good’ are the only ones with any relevance?

The same issue of CM, under a separate head, informed us that there is no room for complacency. Maybe this could be achieved by the simple expedient of talking to a representative cross-section of the members in future.

Ed: We did ask three female FCIOBs. They all declined to comment for the piece.