"How is a court – rather than an open market – supposed to weigh up the appropriate wage packet of a teaching assistant compared to a bin man?"
Telegraph: 2nd April 2025: PopCon's Mark Littlewood explains the root cause of Birmingham's problems
"...Today... Birmingham has quite literally become a dump. Seventeen thousand tonnes of rubbish remain uncollected on its streets. This has been a boon for the growing local population of rats and maggots but is rather less appealing to 1.2 million human residents who are now facing a serious public health crisis.
How did one of our nation’s greatest cities come to be in such a dire state, a situation so bad we would be shocked to come across it in even the poorest regions of planet Earth? For the Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner, the reason is simple... In truth, there are a range of interwoven causes...
...Going back further, the Labour-run local authority is bankrupt... The root cause however is a judicial ruling which landed the council with a £760 million equal pay bill tipping the council into bankruptcy.
The court ruled that male-dominated areas of work were being better remunerated, with opportunities for larger bonuses, than those with a predominance of women. As the work was apparently “similar”, this apparent injustice merited a remedy that has brought the local government apparatus in the city to its knees... The word “similar” here is having to do a lot of work. How is a court – rather than an open market – supposed to weigh up the appropriate wage packet of a teaching assistant compared to a bin man? In what ways are these jobs really “similar” at all?..
They both involve getting out of bed, going to your place of work for a set period of time and applying your skills to solve the various tasks in front of you, but that doesn’t make them meaningfully comparable.
Taking a flight to Geneva is similar to taking a flight to Berlin. The prices aren’t fixed to exactly match. Ketchup is similar to mustard – you use these sauces to add flavour to your food – but a jar of each will cost you very different amounts. Playing rugby has some similarities to playing football, but you will earn much more if you’re an elite performer at the latter.
Allowing courts to determine which rates of pay are legally compliant is what has led to the current disaster in Birmingham..."