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James Kirkup Profile picture
James Kirkup
@jameskirkup
•Partner at @ApellaAdvisors • Senior fellow of @SMFthinktank • Writer for @thetimes + others
Jun 28, 2022 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
Britain is running out of babies. That means trouble ahead for schools (get ready for closures), labour markets (UK will need ⬆️ immigration) + maybe social cohesion.
= We need to talk about why people are having fewer/no children. 1/ @SMFthinktank 's @ScottCorfe + @aveek18 have written thoughtfully about policy on birthrates here: smf.co.uk/wp-content/upl… 2/
Dec 1, 2021 • 14 tweets • 2 min read
Self-referential thread. ⬇️ Several women asked me good questions about this tweet. Those Qs made me think, and deserve answers. My attempt to do that is below.⬇️ 1 What surprised me? The reported age range. For experience of abusive behaviour to be so commonplace at 8, 9, 10 (and younger) is an even grimmer picture than I’d expected.
Aug 27, 2021 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
Am I wrong about this? Would you like to write about why - and have me publish it? Get in touch. I’d like to publish a collection of essays at @smfthinktank on the state and future of general practice. Details in next tweet:

thetimes.co.uk/article/f154c4… Essays can be as rude as you like about me as long as they’re interesting and no more than 1050w. Ideally they’d explain how to 1 increase full-time working 2 get more GPs to deprived areas. /...
Aug 10, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
230,000 students got Btec results today, though you’d barely know it from the BBC. Vocational qualifications get fewer than 100 words of coverage in the top 4 A-level fixated stories here. Contemptuous, and revealing. /.... ImageImage No time to write my annual column pleading for more attention for Btec students. So here’s the 2019 edition:

spectator.co.uk/article/a-leve…
Jul 19, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Ever find yourself thinkIng “Hmm, this trans debate is so complicated - I just don’t know who’s right”?
Well here’s a tip: the people sending death threats to a women who survived domestic abuse because she *said something* they didn’t like - those aren’t the good guys. + Never doubt that this abuse comes because JKR is female. Every man who enters this debate can tell the same story: we get a tiny fraction of the hostility and threats directed at women who make the same points.

thetimes.co.uk/article/dabeb9…
Dec 7, 2020 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
I disagree very strongly with Owen Jones about several issues. But it seems we largely agree about part of the Brexit debate. I think this is worth highlighting because it shows something important that we often seem to forget these days... 1/ It is possible for two people to agree about some things and disagree about others. We don't have to seek the total defeat and discredit of those who disagree with us about something. We don't have to divide the world into our side and their side. 2/
Dec 7, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Based on many responses to this piece, I’m struck by the utter confidence some FBPE tweeters have in their own understanding of Conservatives & Leavers, groups they evidently dislike + see as “other”. Numerous responses argue that wicked Tories always secretly wanted the hardest Brexit ergo there was never any point seeking Norway etc. The (accurate) idea that the Tory Leave position evolved (hardened) over time and in response to ...
Sep 22, 2020 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
Liz Truss confirms to Parliament that the Government will not amend the Gender Recognition Act to allow people to chose their own legal gender without medical approval. gov.uk/government/spe… "We have looked carefully at the issues raised in the consultation, including potential changes to the Gender Recognition Act 2004. It is the Govt’s view that the balance struck in this legislation is correct..."
Sep 17, 2020 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
The @CareQualityComm, a non-departmental public body answerable to Parliament, has decided it is competent to interpret and apply legislation (the Equality Act 2010) as it sees fit.... 1/ The issue here is the "protected characteristics" set out in the Act. It is against the law to discriminate against someone because of:
age
disability
gender reassignment
marriage and civil partnership
pregnancy and maternity
race
religion or belief
sex
sexual orientation 2/
Jul 3, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
New @SMFthinktank report by Amy Norman from our Towards Net Zero programme covered in the Times today: thetimes.co.uk/article/househ… 1/ And in @YahooFinanceUK uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/coronavir… 2/
Jun 15, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
New from @SMFthinktank today: how to build the infrastructure Britain needs for a fair, green recovery: smf.co.uk/publications/i… 1/ We see pension reform as a key condition of more private investment in infrastructure.

It’s time for UK superfunds - See @TimesBusiness today for a good write-up: Pension superfunds key to spending on infrastructure

thetimes.co.uk/article/pensio… 2/
Jun 4, 2020 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
New at @SMFthinktank: Bounce Back Britain, a report on how a new approach by British business can help our economy and society recover from the pandemic. smf.co.uk/publications/b… 1/n The report, written by Andrew O'Brien @SEUK_OBrien of @SocialEnt_UK, argues that business must invest more in people, innovation and communities. Andrew has written for @Telegraph about the report here: telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/… 2/
Apr 9, 2020 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
Anecdata: the negative reactions to this suggest there are quite a lot of men on the internet who know that they, personally, would shrug off Covid19 (or cancer) because they are proper men with manliness and common sense and suchlike. Who knew? bit more seriously, the tendency to overstate personal agency in outcomes is politically important. If you think that individuals' choices/virtues alone decide their fate (the strong/clever prosper; the weak/unworthy fail) why would you value state provision, or society? /2
Mar 11, 2020 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
#budget2020 is an important moment for UK politics and for Conservative economics, for reasons that predate and will (hopefully) outlast coronavirus threats. 1/ Headline: How Conservative leaders relaxed and learned to love the State. £30 billion stimulus package - bigger than G Brown financial crisis response - isn't just about coronavirus or, I think, new era of low rates/borrowing costs. 2/
Mar 2, 2020 • 13 tweets • 4 min read
New from @SMFthinktank's brilliant @PetrieKathryn today: Britain needs to get ready for the 50-year career. A thread about why longer working lives need new policies and new attitudes. smf.co.uk/publications/w… 1/n When the 100-year life becomes unexceptional, careers will extend too. Spending 50 years in the workplace will -- once again - become normal. That will mean changing careers, probably more than once. But do we have the skills for that? 2/
Feb 14, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
/This is dreadful self-promotion, but as the first person to report on Harry Miller’s case, I am very pleased that his right to speak freely has been upheld in court. /

Is it now a crime to like a poem about transgenderism? | Coffee House blogs.spectator.co.uk/2019/01/is-it-… Judgment: judiciary.uk/wp-content/upl…
Feb 13, 2020 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Westminster friends: stop fixating on the reshuffle and look at pictures of the best place in Britain instead. It'll make you happier and you can read the full ministerial list later. 1/x
Feb 10, 2020 • 15 tweets • 6 min read
New from @SMFthinktank > the case for employee share ownership. A story of how companies & politicians can give workers a stake in the economy. Warning: this thread contains references to @GreggsOfficial #steakholdereconomy smf.co.uk/publications/s… 1/ Lots of people think capitalism isn't working. Some surveys show a majority of UK adults still believe the economic model doesn't work for them. edelman.co.uk/research/edelm… To restore trust, we need to make the system work better. 2/
Jan 30, 2020 • 13 tweets • 5 min read
New from @SMFthinktank's @ScottCorfe - why technological change + environmental imperative mean it's time for a new move towards road pricing. 🚘💷smf.co.uk/publications/4… Also, robotic trees. 🌳🤖 1/n Until all road vehicles are electric, road travel will generate emissions and air pollution. Bad for the planet, bad for public health. Good news: we have the means to encourage people to drive less, and drive in less damaging ways/less harmful times. 2/ Image
Jan 15, 2020 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
New at @SMFthinktank - a guest essay from @TimPitt11, former Treasury adviser, argues that the Conservative govt should go beyond 'levelling up' and commit to reduce inequality of incomes and wealth. 1/n smf.co.uk/publications/b… Pitt argues that in order to preserve social consent for the market economy, Conservatives now need to make a historic shift in thinking on inequality, just as they did after 1945 to embrace Beveridge welfare state, and after 1997 on minimum wage 2/
Jan 8, 2020 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
The challenge for anyone who wants a more responsible capitalism that renews its social licence to operate boils down to this: how do we get more companies to be like @GreggS: bbc.co.uk/news/business-… 1/ @GreggS @SMFthinktank has looked at this a lot. Last year, partly inspired by Greggs, we suggested tax incentives to encourage profit-sharing. smf.co.uk/publications/p… 2/ Image