Alasdair Reisner

A special moment for @NUFC and William Osula... but just wait for Aaron Ramsdale's celebration 😅

I would like to order one 'comfortable win' with a side of 'no drama' please

J I I
; The The The

We're fast approaching another Champions League season. There’s nothing like seeing St James’ Park under the lights. Every flag,display & roar from the stands is powered by fans like you. If you love what we do can you consider supporting the next big displays?
Donate here:
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NEWCASTLE UNITED
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

😍

Two goals tonight for Garang Kuol playing for the U21s in the National League Cup. Think that’s five goals and an assist in 7 games. #nufc

Hats off tonight to Wembley’s corporate hospitality team who have the nous to send details of Carabou cup final options within an hour of the final whistle #nufc #notmadeofmoney

I think we might win this #nufc

So I’ve decided to split my Bluesky accounts into work and social. If you are looking for infrastructure stuff I’m @alreisnerceca.bsky.social. Here is going to be mainly NUFC to be honest…

Spending freeze to shunt major railway projects past general election Rachel Reeves is expected to limit funding to maintenance work only as three schemes soak up budget and transport secretary warns on public ownership

This mostly tells you Network North was a load of nonsense. Bunch of random schemes thrown together using ‘savings’ that didn’t exist. Labour were never going to make them all stack up. Infrastructure strat going to be an interesting read. A focus on maintenance/renewal not a bad thing for roads

Spending freeze to shunt major railway projects past general election Rachel Reeves is expected to limit funding to maintenance work only as three schemes soak up budget and transport secretary warns on public ownership

Pretty disappointing stuff today in the Times, highlighting narrowing pipeline of future rail projects. Story slightly undermined by suggestion schemes in Network North were anything other than vapourware conjured up as figleaf to cover cancellation of HS2 phase 2 www.thetimes.com/business-mon...

Shot from inside Tottenham Hotspur stadium ahead of match with Newcastle United

Not a bad stadium to kick off 2025. Good to see Sven Botman starting. #nufc

A logo for the Infrapod podcast by the Civil Engineering Contractors Association

At the risk of looking pompous I've put together a short podcast that covers what I think are some of the key issues for the UK infrastructure sector in the year to come. It is available on:
Youtube
(lnkd.in/e_9YWC8R)
Apple Podcasts (lnkd.in/eXRFTUZC)
and Spotify
(lnkd.in/eHdmnyqW)

THREE KEY ENERGY CHOICES IN 2025 that I expect to have the energy wonk-o-sphere all in a flap: a thread. /1

That doesn't mean that there isn't a major issue with skills in the sector. But I do think the causes of this are complex, including a lack of promotion of careers, boom-and-bust cycles of investment, poor co-ordination of training provision, and low margins (as well as some poor behaviour by firms)

And finally, in a world where competence is increasingly vital (post Building Safety Act) an employer will find it easier to assure themselves that there workers are competent if they are directly employed.

But we are increasingly seeing employers pushing for more direct employment. This is partly because there is a skills shortage so companies want to retain talent. It also helps with skills as its easier to keep tabs on the development of someone if they work for you.

Many employers prefer self-employment - and there are some good reasons for this. But the same is true of employees, who often refuse direct employment. Arguably this is, in part, because an industry has grown up around self-employment that encourages them to do so.

After all, how many other industries have their own dedicated tax system for workers. There must be something to it, eh? Given the perceived benefits to both employer and employee under the system, it is unsurprising that self-employment has flourished, with c625,000 working on this basis .

In a world where everything was done on paper, this sought to ensure that employers were reporting payments to self-employed to HMRC, to avoid highly mobile workers 'forgetting' to notify on income. For me the unintended consequence of this has been to formalise self-employment as a go-to model

Construction lobbyist chipping in here. Perhaps understandably, I have a slightly different view on this. For me the issue dates back to the 1970s when the Government, acting on rampant under-reporting of income by self-employed construction workers, introduced the Construction Industry Scheme.

Matchday graphic | Crystal Palace v Newcastle United

UNITED. 👊

Very sad news. Was part of my pre-match record-shopping tour every other weekend in the 90s. Remember buying Oasis’ Definitely Maybe and Portishead’s Dummy there one Saturday, which must set some sort of personal record for number of subsequent listens per purchase.

TRI's running a course on AI in the construction industry for Innovate UK. We're doing a taster/promo event in Manchester this week www.eventbrite.com/e/building-c...

Slide from presentation on prospects for doing better in infrastructure

Excellent presentation from @gemmatetlow.bsky.social at Transforming Infrastructure Live this morning

Try that again with a link go.bsky.app/NkwgYUU

A link for a construction and infrastructure starter pack

A QR code for a construction and infrastructure starter pack

So, given it’s a bit quiet here in terms of construction & infrastructure people, I thought I’d take a stab at a starter pack. Hope this works, and welcome any additions/suggestions

TINO cross🔥
GORDON GOAL⚽️‼️

Made in Newcastle! You love to see it 😍 #England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 #NUFC ⚫️⚪️

Pre-match preparations for England vs Ireland

Superb to see #nufc essentially running things for ENGIREr