Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 112

The World Cup and Olympics threaten to overwhelm Rio yet there is time to create a sensation out of disaster

Rio de Janeiro is now desperately behind schedule for the 2016 Olympic Games. Sport's mega-events should not be allowed to traumatise this magnificent, complex city

Has Rio de Janeiro the guts? The city is now desperately behind schedule for its 2016 Olympics one insider put it at 10% ready, where London was 60% ready at the same stage. But a visit earlier this month left me with an intriguing question. Could Rios chaotic planners make virtue of necessity? Could they be the first city to haul...

Save Syria's bombed buildings from the Unesco ruin fetishists | Simon Jenkins

The cultural tragedy that is the bombing of Syria's ancient monuments would be compounded if they are not rebuilt

I doubt if there are many "monuments men" in Syria just now. George Clooney is not filming on the streets of Damascus. When people are dying in their thousands, it is hard to look at the fate of monuments. But when the horrors of civil war pass, Syria's heritage, the most glorious in the eastern Mediterranean, will have to be rebuilt. War's survivors recover. Their past m...

How Janus-faced George Osborne defied stereotype and triumphed | Simon Jenkins

For a chancellor four years into office after presiding over the worst slump since the war, his popularity is remarkable

The Osborne star continues to rise, even as his Tory party slumps. In the latest Guardian/ICM poll, the Conservatives dropped three points against Labour, yet George Osborne as manager of the economy is ahead of Labour's team by two to one. For a chancellor four years into office after presiding over the worst slump since the war, this is remarkable.

How can it be? Osbor...

Nigel Farage a natural Tory on course to drive the Tories from power | Simon Jenkins

The Ukip leader is a gadfly who will one day go to ground. But before then it is Cameron, not Miliband, who has most to fear from his sting

There is nothing new about Nigel Farage. He is just another politician adept at exploiting the gap that so easily opens between public opinion and a ruling class grown detached and introverted. Polls show his Ukip appealing not just to disgruntled Tories but a range of the politically dispossessed, particularly those who did badly from recession and expect...

There was only one loser in this Royal Mail privatisation: the taxpayer

The Treasury was badly advised on the sale, relying on firms accused of unethical practices and corporate greed

Thatcher would have screamed, "What! Flogging off her majesty's mail, cheap and to a bunch of spivs?" She always refused to sell Royal Mail. Her latterday apostle on Earth, Margaret Hodge, said as much on Tuesday. As the public accounts committee chairman, she savaged the business secretary, Vince Cable, for last winter's sale of Royal Mail. He had promised: "There is...

There was only one loser in this Royal Mail privatisation: the taxpayer | Simon Jenkins

The Treasury was badly advised on the sale, relying on firms accused of unethical practices and corporate greed

Thatcher would have screamed, "What! Flogging off her majesty's mail, cheap and to a bunch of spivs?" She always refused to sell Royal Mail. Her latterday apostle on Earth, Margaret Hodge, said as much on Tuesday. As the public accounts committee chairman, she savaged the business secretary, Vince Cable, for last winter's sale of Royal Mail. He had promised: "There is...

The IPCC report takes us from alarmism to adaptation

The landmark climate change study should silence the doubters, and steers us towards calm if urgent debate on how we act

At last there are signs of a change of climate over climate change. Seven years of alarmism have yielded endless conferences and gargantuan sums of public expenditure, with no serious impact on carbon emissions. In a bitter irony, the state that has been most hostile to the concept, America, has been the leader in emissions reduction, largely through a free market shift from...

The IPCC report takes us from alarmism to adaptation | Simon Jenkins

The landmark climate change study should silence the doubters, and steers us towards calm if urgent debate on how we act

At last there are signs of a change of climate over climate change. Seven years of alarmism have yielded endless conferences and gargantuan sums of public expenditure, with no serious impact on carbon emissions. In a bitter irony, the state that has been most hostile to the concept, America, has been the leader in emissions reduction, largely through a free market shift from...

Yes, they can be mavericks, but we need whistleblowers like Edward Snowden

Call them weird, snitches, or friends of any enemy. Yet without these saints the world would be a worse place

A lawyer working for HMRC found that his boss, David Hartnett, was having "sweetheart" sessions with Goldman Sachs allowing the bank to avoid £10m in interest on tax. He thought this out of order and did what the rulebook said. Under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 (Pida) he wrote privately to the national audit office and to a committee of parliament. When HMRC...

Yes, they can be mavericks, but we need whistleblowers like Edward Snowden | Simon Jenkins

Call them weird, snitches, or friends of any enemy. Yet without these saints the world would be a worse place

A lawyer working for HMRC found that his boss, David Hartnett, was having "sweetheart" sessions with Goldman Sachs allowing the bank to avoid £10m in interest on tax. He thought this out of order and did what the rulebook said. Under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 (Pida) he wrote privately to the national audit office and to a committee of parliament. When HMRC...