Dr Noble Francis is Economics Director at the Construction Products Association. He appeared on the Today programme this morning on BBC Radio 4 (at about 6.15am). You can hear his interview on ‘listen again’ here for a few days.
Giving a radio interview is always a difficult job. The interviewer has a very short period of time to talk to you and even if you don’t find yourself saying ‘well, it depends’ to a direct question, there will be something that gets left out.
That’s where a blog can help, and I think Noble Francis should be blogging. There are probably loads of reasons why not but here are some good reasons why:
- An economist needs space to explain things;
- A blog is your own space and you can control what goes on it;
- People who hear you on the radio can google you to find out more; and
- Better than twitter, a blog is a permanent (though ongoing) record of your thoughts at the time it was written.
So Noble Francis should have a blog. I think he’d be a really good read. But in the meantime, here is what he tweeted after the interview, to prove the point.
You never the time to say everything you would like to on the Today Programme & Store Street Espresso doesn’t open for another 40 mins so…
— Noble Francis (@NobleFrancis) April 3, 2013
…I’ll explain what I was trying to get across in terms of the Markit/CIPS figures in the general context of construction & the economy.
— Noble Francis (@NobleFrancis) April 3, 2013
The Markit/CIPS figures will show a fall in #construction activity in March, little surprise given the adverse weather. January’s figures…
— Noble Francis (@NobleFrancis) April 3, 2013
… were also adversely affected by poor weather & showed a fall in construction activity. However, exclude the weather factor & there is…
— Noble Francis (@NobleFrancis) April 3, 2013
…still a downward trend; capital investment cuts & private sector construction risk averse due to the UK flatlining for over 2 years…
— Noble Francis (@NobleFrancis) April 3, 2013
…so we may see a degree of catch-up from the poor weather in Q2 but the underlying trend is downward for construction this year…
— Noble Francis (@NobleFrancis) April 3, 2013
The fall in Markit/CIPS construction in March (& Jan & Feb) means Q1 will be down but add that to the Markit/CIPS manufacturing…
— Noble Francis (@NobleFrancis) April 3, 2013
…figures yesterday, which were also a further contraction, implies GDP in Q1 will be down. The services sector is large enough to…
— Noble Francis (@NobleFrancis) April 3, 2013
…offset the falls in construction & manufacturing but the signs aren’t strongly positive for services & retail sales in Q1 will be down…
— Noble Francis (@NobleFrancis) April 3, 2013
…so expect ‘triple-dip recession’ headlines but that somewhat misses the point. The UK economy has been flatlining for over 2 years…
— Noble Francis (@NobleFrancis) April 3, 2013
UPDATE:
As I was preparing this blog Noble replied to our suggestion he have a blog. So that’s alright then!
@subutcher – can’t wait until@noblefrancis creates a personal blog with all his analysis & figures for all to read. #hint
— Pritesh Patel (@priteshpatel9) April 2, 2013
@robwarren42 @subutcher @priteshpatel9 @cpa_tweets Too kind, all of you. I’ll start doing a blog at the end of the month if only to stop…
— Noble Francis (@NobleFrancis) April 3, 2013
@robwarren42 @subutcher @priteshpatel9 @cpa_tweets …irritating twitter followers by having a train of 10 tweets on a particular subject.
— Noble Francis (@NobleFrancis) April 3, 2013
[…] my post a month ago about Noble Francis’ appearance on the Today Programme on Radio 4, I’m delighted to share with you the Construction Products Association blog which […]