Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 112

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...

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...