Screenshot of Bloomberg UK headline: stargate’s first data centre site is size of central part, with at least 57 jobs
Guardian is reporting on ‘phantom investments’ in tech infrastructure - where are the jobs? What will the UK own? What’s in it for the average citizen? - so once again I’m sharing this Bloomberg gem…
$100B data centre, the size of Central Park… and 57 jobs.
FIFTY SEVEN.
My dog does not Dick Van Dyke, but he does a great, theatrical pounce on command.
‘promoting a £160 lunch to awaken attenders’ “inner goddess”’
Careful what you wish for, profiteers: my inner goddess is Skaði - embodiment of righteous vengeance 💁♀️
I could carry on with this for days, but mostly I would be filling in more detail on two of the root cause problems with economic statistics:
- capitalism
- and patriarchy
Problems not only because they’re morally bankrupt, but because they’re incomplete, arrogant and essentially stupid worldviews.
3. Everyone else? Students, retirees and ‘discouraged workers’? Yeah, well that takes material incentive, but the economic blind spot about ‘domestic’ and caring work - a system that imagines it happens for free - depresses pay/conditions until care jobs take more out of you than they can compensate
1. Looking after family/home? They’ve already GOT full time jobs in social care - they’re just doing it unseen, unpaid and DESPICABLY undervalued.
2. Long-term sick/disabled? Cool, cool, cool - pressure them into paid work, and you’re going to drive up care needs for themselves and their households
How the dysfunction is playing out right now:
- the UK government is decimating the social care workforce by cutting off the supply of international workers
- they *think* it will draw folk out of ‘economic inactivity’ to grow the domestic social care workforce, which isn’t happening because…
Galloping (simplified) overview:
There was a time when one salary was expected to sustain a heteronormative household.
Capitalism went rogue, wages eroded, and two-adults-in-employment became the new ‘ideal’.
Previously-disregarded ‘women’s work’ becomes a fracture point in the system.
I’m not going to bore through every one of these, but to classify ‘looking after family/home’ as ‘economically inactive’ is economically illiterate.
a) That is work.
b) It has to be done.
c) *Some* fucker has to do it.
Its invisibilisation/devaluation is the root of a serious economic malaise.
This is how we talk about folk who are neither in employment (as above), nor seeking/available for employment…
Big components:
- in full-time education/training
- retired
- looking after family/home
- long-term sick/disabled
Small components:
- short-term sick
- ‘discouraged workers’
So if you’re thinking that ‘in employment’ is synonymous with ‘working’… yeah… not so much.
It’s really the getting paid for one’s engagements with the economy that counts. Everything else is invisible.
Now that gets SERIOUSLY important when we consider what counts as ‘economic inactivity’…
Let’s start by looking at who counts as ‘in employment’:
- employees and other paid workers like freelancers and the kind of business owners who actually work
- also the kind of business owners who don’t *really* work, and those folks who get a salary for the trouble of being named as a director
If you’re struggling to explain the classification of labour force participation, also consider the view that it is fundamentally INEXPLICABLE. As in: fundamentally misconceived.
And yes, you may take that as a professional opinion.
You bet I’m going to explain…
More of a fancy potato sandwich, I think, and the world needs more of those.
We and our 711 dearest friends…
We and our 711 blood-sworn allies…
If they’re available, sure, but hypermobility means I can get my entire hand in most jars 👍
This time you’re wrong. Pineapple is criminal, but potatoes are fair game. I still rhapsodise about the spinach, potato and cheese croissant thing I had for breakfast once about 3 years ago. And just look at this potatoey, bready, cheesy delight: www.theguardian.com/food/2026/ma...
RadStats annual conference 2025 is being held on 14 March at St Luke's community centre. The theme is using data to promote progressive change and there is a wide range of talks and workshops which is still being added to! Sign up now, students go free. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/2026-radic...
Okay, fine “We must reject the temptation of answers.
I like to think they had 6 months worth of working party and board meetings in every-damned-one of which someone said “We’re going to come up with a better term than ‘buckets’, yes?”
One of my worries about this is the number of eyes on bucket 4 is WAY lower. Every university knows how much money flows out of UKRI in grants, but the sustenance of public sector expertise, facilities and infrastructure is relatively out of sight… and yet it is the backbone of national R&D capacity
We’ve been needling at these buckets all the while they’ve been drip-feeding details… basically:
- the UKRI allocation is pretty much flat
- if they really ARE putting more into buckets 2 & 3, then the sum of buckets 1 & 4 must be picking up the tab
- it is now clear that bucket 4 is taking the fall
Ah, bucket 4… to be forgotten at convenience.
Clear out the spare room, Germany - I’m on my way!
Having literally surveyed the workers in these industries on this very question…. Wow, no.
Actually cackled at this…
‘Whereas so-called “red wall” residents who have moved to the right have been lionised as “hero voters” to be chased and never criticised, Labour-Green switchers must be scolded for being seduced by indulgent and reckless gesture politics.’
Feeling this deeply. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Yup. I think there ought to be a lot more active thought about what’s lost in energy and identity when you have to match scales of policy-setting/governance to the scale of resources/liabilities of a big, national union. In some cases it’s a price worth paying, but I wish people had more choice.
This kind of behaviour is all my evenings and weekends.
There are vulnerabilities to small unions, of course, but also many advantages (see @kjsanders.bsky.social post) often overlooked in the cult of more-is-better. From an ecosystem perspective, adaptive-capacity, and thereby resilience to changing contexts is a product of diversity across scales.
