Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 116

The law isn't there to protect us from Dieudonné's odious views | Simon Jenkins

Our banning of Dieudonné shows that the UK has grown feeble. A robust society should be able to handle the stresses of pluralism

I am reactionary on freedom of speech. I am for it. I have no time for the weasel words of pseudo-liberalism, that freedom must sometimes be curbed to advance freedom. It is like the tyrant's censor who declares he approves of all criticism provided it is fair, constructive, offends no one and is not conducive to violence. That is free speech a la Putin. It is the mo...

Philip Seymour Hoffman and a double standard over drugs | Simon Jenkins

We turn a blind eye to an unworkable law and assume it does not apply to people like us – then take draconian vengeance on others

Anyone who saw Philip Seymour Hoffman in the film A Late Quartet could sense an accident on its way to happening. We now know that the actor and the tortured violinist he portrayed were close to the same person. Acting is a dangerous calling, pushing its practitioners back and forth over the border of unreality.

Hoffman's death has been universally greeted as a trage...

Germany, I apologise for this sickening avalanche of first world war worship | Simon Jenkins

The festival of self-congratulation will be the British at their worst, and there are still years to endure. A tragedy for both our nations

I must apologise to the Germans. They are about to suffer an avalanche of often sickening Great War memorabilia, largely at their expense. It will be the British at their worst: sanctimonious, self-congratulatory, worshipping at the tomb of the unknown, awful German. The centenary of the first world war is already flooding the television schedules before t...

RBS is ours. So let's stop this annual festival of bribery | Simon Jenkins

Bonus culture has become so warped that bankers presiding over losses of £8bn still think they deserve a reward

Bear with me while I get this straight. A bonus is payment for work above and beyond what is covered by a salary. To a modern bank, "above and beyond" does not mean an excess of kindness to a client. It means an excess of profits to the bank.

This week, Ross McEwan, chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland, and his eight top executives stepped forward to "fore...

A 50p income tax rate? A lot of hue and cry to raise a small sum of money | Simon Jenkins

Ed Balls would stand more chance of reducing the wealth gap were he to tax the rich on their property

A 50p top tax rate on the rich is no big deal. Those earning over £150,000 can afford it, especially when the economy is returning to boom. But it raises little money and is no big deal for the poor either. So why do it?

The answer is politics. The howls from Labour's "industrialist" peers that greeted Ed Balls' weekend pledge to reinstate a 50p rate under Labour reminds us of the 18th-century...

Brighton's council tax revolution could strike a blow for democracy | Simon Jenkins

Someone must stand up to the bullying of Eric Pickles and the 'localism' act. Can Brighton's Green party lead the way?

'I love bashing local government," Eric Pickles boasted to his fellow MPs as he slashed and kicked it round the back alleys of Westminster on Wednesday. They laughed. They all knew he had a wink and a nod from the boss, Don Cameroni. As he stood over his blood-stained victim, Pickles said their relationship remained "deep and loving". To him, love is s...

The truth is we are all living on Benefits Street | Simon Jenkins

Everyone is on the take, and whole industries are on white-collar subsidies. Some of us are just smarter at concealing it

Let's face it, we all live on Benefits Street. The Channel 4 series may be raising hackles to left and right, but I doubt if there is a person reading this column who is not "on the take" in some sense. We may work a bit, mostly obey the law and not look a total mess, but then we are not really poor. We can still be "on benefit", and some of us are rich because of it.

I was...

The Lord Rennard case shows that sorry is still the hardest word in politics | Simon Jenkins

Nick Clegg is at the mercy of an 'open market' for vexatious litigation and an upper chamber desperately in need of reform

Nick Clegg must rue the day he failed to push through House of Lords reform. If an MP misbehaves, it is between him and his constituents. Life peers need answer only to God. The gang of political has-beens that constitute the Liberal Democrat peerage has no power, and the money or talent they once brought their party has mostly expired. Now they have ganged up to defend on...

If the MoD can't name the enemy, it shouldn't buy the weapons | Simon Jenkins

Britain hasn't faced a true threat since the cold war, but that hasn't stopped the defence lobby from peddling paranoia

Surprise, surprise. A defence secretary thinks Britain should spend more on defence. The former Pentagon boss Robert Gates is in Britain promoting his old lobby and his new book. He is concerned that Britain's current defence cuts may deprive the Atlantic alliance of "full-spectrum capabilities". They will weaken the world's fourth largest armed force (Britain's, believe it o...

Hollande's private life is the least of his problems | Simon Jenkins

The president should be regretting not his personal follies but the failure of the French economic model

Of course it matters. A president is not just a professional figure. He is a head of state, briefly the embodiment of his people. If the Queen were sneaking off on a scooter each night to see a toyboy in Pimlico, Britons might regard it as a "purely private affair". But they would be aghast and agog. President Hollande's love life may be private. But is it really of no interest or conc...