Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 10

That sinking feeling: why long-suffering Venice is quite right to make tourists pay | Simon Jenkins

The overcrowded city is leading the way with a tax on day trippers. Surely other great European destinations should follow suit

Venice has had enough. It is sinking beneath the twin assaults of tourism and the sea and believes the answer lies in fending off visitors by charging them to enter. It is not alone. Tourism is under attack. Seville is charging for entry to the central Plaza de España. In Paris, the Mona Lisa is so besieged by flashing phones she is about to be banished to a basement. Ba...

No matter how bad the Rwanda bill is, a bunch of unelected peers shouldn’t decide its fate | Simon Jenkins

Democracy needs checks and balances. But the undemocratic composition of the Lords deprives it of basic legitimacy

Almost everyone agrees the government’s Rwanda bill is a bad idea. Its effects on deterring immigration will be trivial. It fails to show that Rwanda will be a humane recipient of migrants. It delivers appalling value for huge sums of public money, and is a mere sop to rightwing voters. All these are reasons why the House of Commons should not have voted in its favour. But it did so,...

The UK’s smoking ban is government meddling at its worst and most pointless | Simon Jenkins

Tobacco is already on its way out. The state should not deny adults the right to make personal decisions for themselves

Just because Liz Truss and Boris Johnson – both opposed to the government’s proposed new smoking ban – hold a belief does not make it wrong. Smoking is unpleasant, but in this week’s parliamentary debate, the word nicotine could have been replaced by cannabis, alcohol, ultra-processed foods, base jumping or mobile phones for children. All have their dangers. But in each case tho...

Britain has no business intervening in the war in Gaza. So why did it defend Israel against Iran? | Simon Jenkins

Our leaders are too eager to revisit the UK’s one-time role as police officer to the world. This isn’t the way to do foreign affairs

Britain’s use of its air force to defend Israel against Iran at the weekend was an emphatic intervention in the war in Gaza. It was more than Britain has done for Ukraine. And while the war in Ukraine does at least have implications, albeit distant, for Britain’s long-term defence, Israel’s dispute with Gaza has none. It is not Britain’s business. So why did we get ...

Waiting for this flailing government to call an election is excruciating. We need parliamentary reform | Simon Jenkins

A Fixed-term Parliaments Act must be restored, so election dates suit the national interest – not the prime minister’s

There should be a general election now. The agony of British politics is growing too much to bear. The morbidity of the Tory government is too obvious. Whether or not Labour’s Keir Starmer in Downing Street is what Britain most needs is irrelevant. Barely one voter in five supports the present Tory government. Starmer may enjoy the support of barely half the electorate, but that ...

Even its old boys are turning on the stuffy Foreign Office. They’re right to do so | Simon Jenkins

This seat of Britain’s global power is elitist and stuck in the past. It needs to take into account the UK’s new, reduced status

Poor old Foreign Office. The imperial roar has become a squeak. All the wrong pictures adorn its walls, and the wrong attitudes its mindset. And now even its own are turning against it. A new report, aimed at a forthcoming Labour government, demands a complete rebuild. Written by three senior ex-diplomats, including the former cabinet secretary Lord Sedwill, it dismisse...

Scotland’s hate crime law may be well intentioned, but the police should not stymie public debate | Simon Jenkins

The Scottish government’s legislation is frankly unworkable. I worry it may stifle honestly expressed, contentious views

It is right that expressions of hatred against groups based on race and ethnicity are illegal. Whether these laws have ended hatred or merely driven it underground – a not unwelcome outcome – is a matter of opinion. But Scotland’s law against hate crime, implemented this week, extends state intervention to the “stirring of hatred” against a range of groups defined by age, disa...

I’m a Garrick member. The exclusion of women is the opposite of liberal. It is out of date and wrong | Simon Jenkins

I feel strongly that any association of citizens in a free society should be allowed to make its own rules. But this ban is absurd

Do clubs matter? Yes, to their members, and clearly to those they exclude. When Alexis de Tocqueville compared American democracy with British, he said America’s roots were in the mob and Britain’s in the club. Americans vote for a president who doesn’t sit in Congress. Britons vote for a member of parliament, a tight-knit Westminster club.

The revived argument over Lo...

Does China spy on Britain? Of course. But we have more important things to discuss with them | Simon Jenkins

While diplomatic rows are inevitable, the priority is to keep channels open, and engage with Beijing about the climate crisis

Once upon a time Britain would have sent a gunboat up the Yangtze River. That would teach those Chinese a lesson. To hear some MPs talk about Beijing’s espionage activities, you would think gunboats were already on their way.

Of course, it is malicious and hurtful for a foreign state patently to hack into Britain’s Electoral Commission and target senior parliamentarians – ...

Putin is a dictator and a tyrant, but other forces sustain him – and the west needs to understand them | Simon Jenkins

Kneejerk criticism of regimes in Russia, China or India may make us feel better, but there’s no evidence it is making the world a safer place

The west’s derisive reporting of Vladimir Putin’s election victory this week was a mark of his success. It was described as an abuse of democracy, “rigged”, “fixed” and “a sham”. The other candidates were shadows, while Putin’s true opponents were imprisoned, exiled or dead. According to this narrative, the 87% who voted for him were mere victims of coercio...