James Ball
Tech, policy, politics. Pol ed @ the New European, fellow @ Demos, writer in various other places. Latest book: The Other Pandemic – How QAnon Contaminated The World
jamesrball.com
- Journalism was something of a leading indicator here, given that more than one local newspaper seems to have advertised reporter jobs on salaries *below* minimum wage (presumably because they hadn’t checked the hourly equivalent). IIRC one role required a full NCTJ plus driving licence and car.
- In Britain, the fast-rising minimum wage is catching up with the bottom rungs of white-collar work. In fact, it appears that a rising number of people who earn annual salaries & don't work in low-paid sectors are now being paid below the legal minimum... www.ft.com/content/5f69...
- Central Bradford is also just a *much* nicer place to be now than it was ten years ago. Got a good book festival now, the park’s been regenerated, the pit is gone…so why’s it a problem if 50% of people were born overseas precisely?
- 🚨 NEW: Robert Jenrick backs PM with claim UK already an ‘island of strangers’ in some places “Aggressive levels of mass migration have made us more divided... for example central Bradford - 50 per cent of people were born outside of the UK”, he said Full story ⤵️ www.politics.co.uk/news/2025/05...
- Those sectors include childcare, where incomes are set by the government, and social care, where…prices are largely set by the government. There have, of course, been no announcements on increasing providers’ incomes. They have had their employers’ national insurance hiked, though.
- There is something bordering on abusive in the way ministers today are talking about public services – Jacqui Smith on universities, and Yvette Cooper on care homes. They are blaming institutions for decisions forced on them by government, without admitting they or changing anything.
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View full threadSimilarly, it’s easy for Cooper to suggest care homes should be better employers – better pay, more hours, etc. Why can’t they do that? Partly private equity, sure. But mostly because councils don’t pay enough for care, and can’t afford to pay more. And government isn’t fixing that, either.
- So both ministers coming out and doing both in one day looks something like institutional DARVO. It will rightly go down like cold sick in universities, councils and care homes. But significantly: it will fix absolutely nothing. Services will get worse, and even collapse.
- Central government doesn’t give universities enough funding. They have been required to frenetically compete for overseas students to subsidise UK provision – cutting all the while. They’re now being attacked for doing what they were forced to do, without any funding for a new model.
