A Week In The Life of BPF Director General Peter Davis

In this special feature we look at a week in the life of BPF Director-General Peter Davis, as he meets industry leaders, develops relationships and raises the industries concerns at various stakeholder forums....

Monday 12th July

Our latest Business Conditions Survey is published. Shows more planning capital investments than I'd dared hope for. Bank of England thanks me for their copy.

Tuesday  13th July

DEFRA's Chemicals Stakeholders Forum. A rainbow mixture of Greens, NGOs, academics and Industry. Almost outnumbered by civil servants. TUC raises Bisphenol A. I respond by welcoming the Eu Food Standards Agency's rubbishing of the evidence for the Danish ban. The new Government has been querying the value of the CSF.

Evening meeting of the newly re  formed All Party Packaging Parliamentary Group. The new chairman Dan Rogerson MP seems good and in one hour we rattle through packaging targets, low carbon industrial strategy, localism, food waste, and future energy shortages Six MPs were present and plenty like me from industry.

Wednesday 14th July

Up early for a breakfast meeting at lobbyists Bircham, Dyson, Bell with guest speaker John Sharkey, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg's Strategic Policy Adviser. He says in future General Elections electronic communications are key, posters and Party political broadcasts are losing ground. He will head the Lib Dems voting reform campaign.

On to the BIS Nanotechnology conference chaired by former BPF Council member Chris Dale. Speakers are upbeat about the huge opportunities for our industries, but also frank about the difficulties such as public and media perception, risk assessments, knowledge gaps.

The BPF will consult our members to have a better idea of their use of Nanotechnology.

Thursday 15th July

I see house prices are predicted to fall a little too many sellers, not enough buyers. Not helpful for our construction products members. Oil price static at $76 a barrel Brent Crude yet our members are being hit by big polymer price increases and supply shortages of PP and PE. We have asked Plastics Europe to issue a statement on why these shortages are occurring and how long will this last.