Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 11

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 It is out of date and wrong | Simon Jenkins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...

Loyalty was once the glue that held the Tories together. But now they’ve come unstuck | Simon Jenkins

Claims of a leadership bid are ‘bonkers’, say Penny Mordaunt’s allies. But so too is staying silent while the PM stumbles towards an election

There are many good reasons for Rishi Sunak to postpone a general election. All are about reducing his party’s potential loss of seats. There is also an overwhelming reason for calling one now. It is in the national interest.

British government needs an act of cleansing. It needs renewal and a fresh start under a new regime. Every month that start is delayed...

Britain’s prison system is brutal and broken. Why does reforming it seem so impossible? | Simon Jenkins

Prisoners are being released early because jails are overflowing. We know what better policies would look like – but politicians won’t act

Guess which public service is hardly ever mentioned in stories about austerity? The answer is prisons. Last week, prison governors were told by the justice minister, Alex Chalk, to send prisoners home two months early to free up cells because 99.7% of prisons were full. He must have been desperate. Imagine hospitals being told to send patients home two weeks e...

The moral of Kate’s picture-editing debacle is simple: the royal family should tell all | Simon Jenkins

The first rule of celebrity is that once you crank up the publicity machine, keeping secrets is out of the question

Royal photo’s telltale signs of editing

Not since Trotsky vanished from the Soviet politburo portrait has photo-editing caused such a storm. What dark secrets lie behind the daughter’s misaligned sweater, the blurred skirt and the twisted zip? What dynastic horror is being concealed by the Princess of Wales’s missing wedding ring? What are we not being told?

Questions over the princes...

Put yourself in the shoes of a Donald Trump voter – and understand what drives his success | Simon Jenkins

Within Trump’s wild exaggerations are grains of truth. Liberals have never dealt with them – and that’s why he might win again

Donald Trump is certain to be the Republican candidate in this year’s election for US president. He is also currently favourite to win. To most readers of the Guardian, I am sure this prospect is appalling, as it is to most Britons. The nation to which they gave birth and language, that has been their friend and protector down the ages, seems to be going mad.

Britons who k...