A final report submitted to the government by the Cowboy Builders Working Group calls for a voluntary nationwide register of “‘quality-marked” builders, to be backed up by a mandatory warranty covering all work.

I enjoyed reading this interesting and well written book. Rebecca Saunders addresses the subject on everyone’s lips at the moment - electronic commerce. E-commerce has and will continue to radically change the purchasing profession and purchasers are going to have to adapt to maximise the technological revolution that many have compared with the industrial revolution.

Not so long ago, an accusation that one was not living in the real world could be taken as criticism and a prediction of failure. Now, it seems, we all need to be logging into the virtual world if we want business success.

So-called “vertical agreements” have been set on a firmer legal footing by the European Union’s industrial affairs council.