Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 111

Forced into a supranational straitjacket, European voters have rebelled | Simon Jenkins

With barely half the continent now in favour of union, EU leaders can no longer ignore the writing on the wall

Yesterday's European vote was not an election, it was a referendum. Britain's Ukip will in time slide from the stage, as will France's National Front. The vote does not upheave party politics: it was the emphatic assertion of Euro-scepticism, the moment when a critical mass of Europe's voters withdrew their consent from ever greater union.

Voters long accustomed to trust their ruling e...

How much gory detail do we need the Iraq war inquiry to publish? | Simon Jenkins

Iraq was a grand folly, but the official report must still observe the boundary between privacy and disclosure

Publish Chilcot and be damned, by all means, but which Chilcot? Whitehall's inability to untwist its knickers over Gordon Brown's inquiry into Tony Blair's war in Iraq has become farcical. The report was ready four years ago, yet David Cameron claims he cannot order publication as it is "independent". Yet he, or perhaps those murkily in his employ, are stalling it by demandi...

Housing crisis? No, just a very British sickness | Simon Jenkins

The daily calls to build new homes are based on meaningless data, with little reference to actual demand or existing stock

Housing booms are today's medieval plagues. Boils suppurate on the political backside. People rush to find culprits to lynch. Quacks appear on street corners with fake remedies. Reason takes a holiday.

Thus it was yesterday, as the Today programme's John Humphrys chided David Cameron for the "housing crisis" and for not building more houses in the Tory shires...

A vote for Ukip is a vote against Europe, nothing more | Simon Jenkins

Nigel Farage has made the European elections about a point of view: do you want to be part of the EU or not?

The truest thing Nigel Farage has said in the countdown to Thursday's European election is, "I was tired", when apologising for unfortunate remarks on Romanian immigration. Farage's tiredness tells us much about his rise to fame, not least his lonely status as leader, spokesman, policy chief, disciplinarian, candidate selector and celebrity all-in-one. It is a wonder the whole...

Renewable energy won't rid us of the horrors of coal | Simon Jenkins

The Turkish disaster has brought home the grave costs of mining. But hysteria-led policies will only make matters worse

If 300 workers were to die in a nuclear accident or a shale gas blast, such an energy source would be doomed. Not so coal. Coal is the filthiest and most polluting form of energy, and the most dangerous to extract. I recall my Welsh grandfather boasting that none of his sons had "gone down the pit". Yet coal continues to exert a mesmeric hold on the world'...

Ed Miliband must give up his love of state intervention | Simon Jenkins

The Labour leader's stance on AstraZeneca is beyond silly. He needs a route map to cash in on the coalition's chaos

Ed Miliband is opposed to the Pfizer takeover of AstraZeneca. I do not recall if in 1999 he also opposed Zeneca's takeover of Sweden's Astra or the location of its US operation to low-tax Delaware. But with a slump in his poll rating and 64% of Britons reportedly against the Pfizer deal, chauvinism clearly trumped free trade, and to hell with hypocrisy.

The ideological mood of Mil...

Ukraine should be left to forge its own course | Simon Jenkins

A key principle of liberal politics is self-determination. Step forward the people of Ukraine not Washington or London

Last night's Ukraine referendum yields not one crisis but two. The first is separatist pressure of the sort that has long plagued the politics of Europe. A poorly drawn border, an ethnic or linguistic minority, an inept central government all lead to revolt. Resolution lies either in devolution and confederation or in partition and independence. Witness Ireland, Kosovo, Slovak...

Why mighty Yorkshire is another country in waiting | Simon Jenkins

The proud county of Yorkshire can go one better than 'minority' Cornwall. After years of London centralisation, it's payback time

The warm-up question for the BBC's Question Time panel in Leeds last week was pithy. If Cornwall, why not Yorkshire? If little Cornwall can now be afforded "European minority status", why not the mighty province of York?

Are 5.5 million Yorkshire men and women not as deserving of "minority status" within the United Kingdom as half a million Cornis...

Small is best. The NHS needs to be broken up | Simon Jenkins

Our once revered health service is a national scandal. After so many failed reforms, it's clear central control has failed

Hundreds of asthma victims die needlessly "because NHS guidelines are routinely neglected". Diabetic children's "lives are at risk because doctors miss threat". Eleven thousand heart patients each year "died because of poor care". Ten thousand cancer patients "die needlessly because of blatant ageism among doctors". And this is just...

Blood transfusions rejuvenate mice. Could they do the same for humans? | Simon Jenkins

Research showing that injecting old mice with the blood of young mice revives them could be a giant step for human immortality

At last, news we can all use. American researchers in three separate tests have suggested that blood transfusions could rejuvenate not just dodgy cyclists but everyone. It could be a giant step in the quest for immortality, a quest as old as humankind itself. Why wait for Darwinian natural selection when the blood bank can shorten the process by millennia?

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