Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 100

Cuba has shown us that sanctions don’t work – so why keep using them? | Simon Jenkins

With all the subtlety of Game of Thrones, this kind of warfare has become the default mode of western diplomacy. Yet the only people they hurt are the poor

The days are long gone when Labour was torn apart by ban the bomb. For the party leader, Ed Miliband, the Trident missile is what HS2 is for David Cameron. It is political tokenism, machismo, image candy. Am I big on defence, Miliband said to an interviewer. “Hell, yes.” Look at my weapons.

For Britain (and France), nuclear bombs are to fore...

Labour’s new message: vote Tory for financial recklessness | Simon Jenkins

Ed Miliband’s response to the panicky Conservative pledge to find 8bn for the NHS suggests a more mature approach to public finances

The election campaign has hit its paradox moment. Vote Tory for reckless, unfunded public spending. Vote Labour for extreme fiscal responsibility. This week’s manifestos, starting with Labour today, cannot be taken at face value. They are opening bids for the manifesto that dares not speak its name, the outcome of post-election coalition treaties, winks and nods....

The Tories must stamp on the leech of non-dom status before Labour beats them to it | Simon Jenkins

The time to abolish this shameful tax anachronism is long overdue. The only question is: why has it taken successive governments so long?

The Tories should nip this one in the bud. It does not matter what Ed Balls said a few months ago about taxation of “non-doms”, apparently ridiculing what Ed Miliband now supports. Balls was wrong and Miliband is right, and George Osborne should now agree. The chancellor can claim to be tougher than any of his predecessors on tax avoidance. He can argue that...

Tony Blair’s love affair with Europe will not win votes for Labour | Simon Jenkins

In his entry into the election campaign, Blair has forgotten that Britons are sceptical of the virtues of EU membership

The condor is back, wheeling dark overhead. Far beneath, the villagers shudder and lambs rush to their mother’s side. The shadow of Tony Blair brings with it memories of past wars and pestilences, of slick and spin. Why does he come back? They cry. Why not leave us in peace?

Blair’s efforts to rehabilitate himself remain half-hearted. A paltry £1,000 for each marginal La...

Why shouldn’t Michael Bloomberg be mayor of London? | Simon Jenkins

The former mayor of New York is rumoured to be thinking of running London. After all, they are really one city, separated only by an airport runway

The rumour that the former mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg is thinking of running as mayor of London confirms what the rest of Britain has long known. The United Kingdom is continuing to dissolve. New York and London are really one city, separated only by an airport runway. But both are thousands of miles distant from their hinterlands. That is...

The government Britain needs most is the one that will do the least | Simon Jenkins

Ever since Salisbury ministers have harassed public servants and voters alike with relentless, ego-driven reform

We won’t touch. We’ll change nothing. We’ve mucked you about long enough and will leave you alone, we promise. These are the least likely pledges to be heard during the coming election campaign. No one will promise to stop fussing, meddling, intervening, legislating, regulating. The only coalition that exists is the “coalition for change”, and it embraces all parties. A politician w...

Let’s salute Nick Clegg’s final voyage as the good ship Lib Dem sinks

Nick Clegg cannily played the role of kingmaker in the last parliament and got a cabinet full of Lib Dems and a coalition that lasted. But it’s all over now

Danger: Deep Water, said the sign behind Nick Clegg as he visited a hedgehog farm yesterday. The Liberal Democrat leader was starting his election campaign in unpromising surroundings. As he steers his ship towards disaster he can at least show elegant irony.

The Lib Dems could once wield the power of kingmakers in a hung parliament. Now th...

An antidote to Alex Salmond: offer the Scots home rule | Simon Jenkins

The SNP’s would-be kingmaker could yet demand another referendum. Ed Miliband must call his bluff

It has been the most boring question in politics: who do you think is going to win the May election? Only a fool would give an answer. You might as well toss a coin. But suddenly the clouds have parted and there appears clear blue sky ahead. Or is it red? This is courtesy of an interview in the New Statesman by the putative Scottish leader in the commons, Alex Salmond. He says that if the Tories a...

David Cameron states the blindingly obvious and the Westminster village yokels are amazed | Simon Jenkins

There was nothing in the prime minister’s BBC interview that was worthy of consternation – he should tell the gossips to grow up

It’s carrotgate. Kitchen unconfidential. Catastrophe in Le Creuset.

The prime minister states the blindingly obvious and Westminster village yokels declare themselves stunned, amazed and “totally distracted”. David Cameron thinks 15 years as party leader will be enough, and there are plenty of people able to follow him. Shock, horror. How could he say such a thing?

Re...

Britain is as tribal now as it has been for millennia | Simon Jenkins

A new study confirms that the people of England are largely of Germanic origin. But it fails to answer the question of when they really came

Some years ago I went to see a medieval farmhouse in north Devon. The owner was a hostile character with a gun and a mastiff. “Where you from?” he shouted as I approached. I said I was from London. “OK, as long as you’re not from Cornwall,” he said, spitting as he spoke. Cornwall was barely 10 miles away.

This was no petty football rivalry. It reflects, we...