Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 118

George Osborne talks tough but acts like a Labour chancellor | Simon Jenkins

Despite the claims to austerity, Britain has seen nothing to compare with the cuts imposed on the Greeks or Spaniards

Is George Osborne genius or monster? Is he godsend or Satan? When he said on Monday that Britain must take another £25bn in "cuts", half of them from welfare, was he declaring a manifest truth or peddling a tissue of electioneering mendacity? The trouble is the answer must be one thing or the other. It will depend not on the answer but the answerer, on tribal membership. There...

The Conservatives should embrace a yes vote for Scottish independence now | Simon Jenkins

Britain has fought many wars over self-determination, so independence for Scotland should not be treated as a privilege

This could be the year that Great Britain comes to an end. The prospect is historically momentous. Yet it is one that appears to evoke nothing more than a yawn from most English people. The reason, I assume, is that to them it does not much matter. They have moved on from such things.

We tend to forget that the confederacy to which most of us owe loyalty – the United...

The Volgograd bombs are a warning over Olympic excess | Simon Jenkins

The more elaborate the staging of international sporting events, the more they are liable to attract protest and terrorism

The bomb blasts in the southern Russian city of Volgograd remind us that modern Olympiads are nationalist stunts first, and sports events second. Each one is more expensive and more politicised than the last, therefore becoming a magnet for enemies of the relevant state.

Vladimir Putin's February winter games in Sochi have already matched Beijing 2008 in the enormity of the...

What Vermeer's guitar player taught me about the joy of art | Simon Jenkins

With Kenwood House restored, The Guitar Player is back where she should be and my obsession is renewed

She is back home. I am always suspicious of people who claim to fall in love through a picture. It is a funny sort of love, and was disastrous for Henry VIII and Anne of Cleves. But I can see how a picture can become an obsession. Mine is with Vermeer's portrait of a girl The Guitar Player, now gloriously restored to a fit setting in the reopened Kenwood House on London's Hampstead Heath.

I go...

Why does a united Northern Ireland still seem a pipe dream? | Simon Jenkins

The inability to agree on flags and parades – fear-mongering emblems of a militarist past – highlights the impossibility of the US negotiator's task

Last night the American negotiator Richard Haass seemed close to throwing up his hands in despair over yet another bid to bring peace to the parties in Northern Ireland. He has been struggling since July to clear up lingering aspects of the ever-hesitant peace process. These include flags, parades and how to treat the legacies and suspicions of pa...

The Woolwich killers don't threaten the state, yet are treated as warriors in a new cold war | Simon Jenkins

The murderers of Lee Rigby are criminals. But it is the defence lobby, not the police, that reaps the rewards of British paranoia

The most serious threat to Britain's peace and security is from a few crazed Islamists indulging in a religious vendetta. The killers of a British soldier in Woolwich said they were "justified" because such soldiers had killed thousands of Muslims abroad. The reasoning is specious. A court has jailed a British soldier for just such a death, and Woolwich is not a war...

Whether or not it's Heathrow, airport expansion is just another glamorous project for the rich | Simon Jenkins

David Cameron's Heathrow U-turn capitulated to the toughest corporate lobby of our times and its claims of what's best for 'UK plc'

We now know the answer. There are still three possible sites for new London airport runways: at Heathrow, Gatwick or the Thames estuary. The news is at least a quarter of a century old. Connoisseurs of British indecision will greet Sir Howard Davies's announcement on Tuesday as an all-time, blue-chip, 24-carat masterpiece of the genre. We are back where we started...

In a globalised world, there is no cure for slavery | Simon Jenkins

Theresa May's modern slavery bill proposes tougher sentences for traffickers, but the line between voluntary migration and servitude is often vague

After a century of lecturing the outside world on the evils of slavery, Britain apparently needs to pass a law suppressing it within its own borders. There are an estimated 10,000 people living in slavery in Britain, a rise of "25% in a year", according to the home secretary, Theresa May – figures that look so vague they are hard to believe.

The tra...

Heroic Uruguay deserves a Nobel peace prize for legalising cannabis | Simon Jenkins

The war on the war on drugs is the only war that matters. Uruguay's stance puts the UN and the US to shame

I used to think the United Nations was a harmless talking shop, with tax-free jobs for otherwise unemployed bureaucrats. I now realise it is a force for evil. Its response to a truly significant attempt to combat a global menace – Uruguay's new drug regime – has been to declare that it "violates international law".

To see the tide turn on drugs is like trying to detect a glacier move. But...

The Mandela coverage and the banality of goodness | Simon Jenkins

To discuss Mandela alongside Mother Teresa, Gandhi and Jesus is barking mad. I bet he's laughing his head off right now

Enough is enough. The publicity for the death and funeral of Nelson Mandela has become absurd. Mandela was an African political leader with qualities that were apt at a crucial juncture in his nation's affairs. That was all and that was enough. Yet his reputation has fallen among thieves and cynics. Hijacked by politicians and celebrities from Barack Obama to Naomi Campbell a...