Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 10

Britain’s ‘most dangerous’ years lie ahead, warns Sunak. It’s cheap politics from a floundering PM | Simon Jenkins

Beleaguered British leaders have always resorted to shielding their belligerence behind a wall of ‘values’. That’s what today’s speech was about

Rishi Sunak is talking rubbish to win votes. He warns today that the next few years will be among the most terrifying and “transformative” the country has ever known. Britain faces the “most dangerous threat” to its security from “colluding authoritarian states” since the end of the cold war.

Such threats are politics at its cheapest. Every war indulged i...

It’s as if misogyny was the vice that dared not speak its name at the Garrick. That cloud has now lifted | Simon Jenkins

I saw a voting process that was both dignified and moving – and as a member of long standing, I welcome this change

The Garrick Club’s vote this week in favour of admitting women as members mattered. It mattered – and was the subject of widespread public debate – because the club’s prominence in London’s establishment landscape made its exclusion of women seem unjust and wrong. With a large number of senior judges and other public servants as members, it simply could not pass as just another club...

England’s metro mayors make a farce of local democracy. They must be scrapped | Simon Jenkins

They were meant to refresh local politics, not confuse it. Starmer must devolve proper powers to every city and town

England’s 12 “metro mayors” should be abolished. Metro mayorships are artificial creations whose regional geography rarely reflects any civic identity or pride. Towns and cities should have properly elected mayors, as is common in other democracies. These regional entities were invented by Whitehall in the 2010s, supposedly to order transport and investment. Their boundaries were c...

Schools should bond communities: faith schools divide them. Why are ministers making that worse? | Simon Jenkins

The government wants to scrap England’s 50% cap on ‘faith admissions’. It will just lead to religious discrimination

To gain admission to the local church school near my home, parents were always advised to attend church. Otherwise, they were told, they should try elsewhere. The result was local antagonism: cars and buses filled with local children were ferried to more distant schools. It was a bad system in every sense.

In 2010, in an attempt to stem the growth of sectarian free schools, the Came...

Patients maimed by infected blood, innocents jailed, lives ruined. We want real justice – not inquiries| Simon Jenkins

The contaminated blood and Post Office scandals demand accountability and speedy redress for victims. We’re getting neither

How much money should go to those given infected blood in the 1970s and 80s? And how much to the wronged subpost office operators? Such questions surge periodically into the daylight and then subside. Last month it was the subpost office operators’ turn, stirring a burst of public rage. Today, an amendment to a bill demanding expanded compensation for victims of infected blo...

After years of inquiries, why are victims of gross errors by public bodies still waiting for proper compensation? | Simon Jenkins

The contaminated blood and Post Office scandals have resulted in politicians and Whitehall both dodging accountability

How much money should go to those given infected blood in the 1970s and 80s? And how much to the wronged subpost office operators? Such questions surge periodically into the daylight and then subside. Last month it was the subpost office operators’ turn, stirring a burst of public rage. Today, an amendment to a bill demanding expanded compensation for victims of infected blood is...

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 ...