Welsh Secretary is whining because he read about UBI experiment online. But is that it, really?
Why so sad, Simon? The Tory Secretary of State for Wales is upset that Universal Basic Income might be tried out in Wales. What if – God forbid – it’s a success?
Simon Hart has made a big mistake, shouting about the Welsh Government’s Universal Basic Income experiment too soon.
He’s all upset because Wales’s First Minister, Mark Drakeford, has announced that the Welsh Government will run a pilot scheme.
He reckons Drakeford jumped the gun by announcing it in a story he read online (this one?*) before talking to the Treasury and the Department for Work and Pensions, which runs state benefits.
In fact, it seems to This Writer, Hart is the one who’s jumping the gun.
Drakeford, a long-term supporter of UBI, realised before this year’s local elections that he could end up leading an Assembly in which a significant number of members also support it.
In the event, counting himself, 26 of the 60-strong Welsh Assembly want UBI trials.
So he has begun research into that possibility. It clearly hasn’t gone very far because when I ran the story he was seeking expressions of interest from unitary authorities and now he’s talking about giving it to people leaving care.
It is far too early to be talking with the Treasury, DWP or any other official organisations about this because it might not come to anything, despite the good intentions of all concerned.
But being premature isn’t the big mistake I think Simon Hart has made.
His big mistake was showing how much he hates the idea of UBI:
Mr Hart said he agreed with previous comments made by the Welsh economy minister Vaughan Gething in 2018 – when he was health minister – that the idea was “out of touch”.
The UK government, which controls benefits, has said it did not think it would be an incentive to work.
The problem, for Tories, is that in many cases the only incentive to work at the moment is the avoidance of extreme poverty and the threat of death due to benefit deprivation according to – guess what? – Tory rules.
A Universal Basic Income scheme would take away that threat, but would still leave people living at subsistence level.
The difference is that, rather than forcing the worst possible pay and conditions on possible employees and saying, “take it or leave it,” employers would have to start offering genuine incentives for people to take their jobs.
That is anathema to Tories. It means they and their business-oriented friends would end up taking a smaller cut of their firms’ profits, because employees would be able to demand what they’re actually worth.
That’s what Simon Hart revealed to us: he isn’t opposed to UBI because it’s “out of touch” or because of any inter-governmental lack of manners; he hates it because it offers dignity to working people.
And to those without jobs, come to think of it.
*I doubt it, although the tweet that I used came from a source that was new to me. Why can’t the BBC credit social/online media sources that published stories first? Is it some weird neurosis – worry that someone else is doing better news reporting?
Source: Universal basic income: UK government ‘not told’ about Welsh plans – BBC News
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I was reading a post by Craig Murray earlier, where he complains he wasn’t regarded as a professional journalist because he only posts on social media. So perhaps the beeb also doesn’t reccognise sources that only publish on social media because they are unregulated and probably not able to be regulated so long as they stay within the law.
If social media journalists stay within the law, then they are regulated, aren’t they? By the law?
What about social media sites that are regulated by Impress?
And what about people like me? I’m a former mainstream media journalist who gave it up to be a carer, with this as a spare-time sideline. Why shouldn’t I be recognised?