Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 111

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?

Back in time,...

Schools are held hostage by politicians' control-freakery | Simon Jenkins

Local authorities are effective guarantors of educational standards. Gove, Hunt and Blunkett need to get out of the way

The true test of any reform is that it sticks. The education secretary, Michael Gove, seems to have failed it. Boldly determined to transform England's schools and defy leftwing teachers, he has made so few friends and so many enemies that the latter are out to smash his achievements. Labour's Tristram Hunt and David Blunkett this week began the demolition. If Labour comes to...

Vision of the future or criminal eyesore: what should Rio do with its favelas?

Despite the looming World Cup and Olympics, constitutional reform and powerful drug lords have kept redevelopment of Rios squatter settlements at bay but the price is poverty and anarchy

The granite hump of Providencia gazes down like a stern guardian on the old port of Rio de Janeiro. It offers probably the finest viewpoint over any city I know. Rios great bay stretches inland to distant mountains. Below lies what was once the worlds third largest port, now mostly silent. Along the coast a pa...

The problem isn't Ukip, it is Europe | Simon Jenkins

David Cameron has fallen into the same trap as John Major. Now the politics of citizen identity lurks everywhere

I cannot tell if this week's cross-party plan to brand Ukip as racist emanates from the spin doctors of Nigel Farage's party or from some madcap ivory tower in Westminster. On all previous evidence, it will do Ukip no harm and, by keeping the party that wants Britain out of Europe in the headlines, will probably do it some good.

Like project fear, which was intended to scare Scottish...

Of all Catholic rituals, canonisation is nonsense | Simon Jenkins

So former popes John XXIII and John Paul II are saints for their 'miracles'. At such times I sympathise with intelligent Catholics

Two new saints were declared at the weekend. Amid euphoric scenes in Vatican Square, Pope Francis defied his modernisation drive by canonising two of his recent predecessors. The world's press indulged the occasion as one of universal joy. Even if they did regard it as barking mad, they thought it bad form to rain on someone else's parade.

Of all Catholic rituals, s...