Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 119

The MPs' pay rise is perfectly sensible | Simon Jenkins

Don't let anger at public officials blind one to the need to pay an appropriate salary. Pay less and we'd only get worse MPs

In the matter of pay, I am on the side of MPs. Their present salary of £66,000 is modest by professional standards, though we know they found devious ways of getting it considerably higher. After the scandal of their "second homes" and other devices, they sensibly parked their remuneration off-shore with an independent adjudicator.

That adjudicator has now judged that MPs...

Wind turbines trash the landscape for the benefit of billionaires | Simon Jenkins

Energy policy is chaotic and incoherent. The myth that wind power is 'free' has driven Britain's politicians mad

Is it fair for the chancellor to cut pensions for the poor while offering a million pounds a year to the Duke of Roxburghe for letting the wind blow? Is it fair to offer half a million to the Earl of Moray, a third of a million to the Earl of Glasgow, and a quarter of a million to the Duke of Beaufort, Sir Alastair Gordon Cumming and Sir Reginald Sheffield, the prime minister's fath...

What on earth is David Cameron's China junket for? | Simon Jenkins

Such 'trade missions' are a costly waste of time. Why doesn't he do something useful, such as making it easier for Chinese tourists to visit Britain?

David Cameron's trade missions are bordering on the ludicrous. He has been on more than 50. Today a grand entourage of 131 friends, party associates and celebrities is in China at public expense on a vastly enjoyable escape from reality. No one has ever shown that politicians' trade visits add one penny to the balance of payments that a good expo...

Why the assault on cigarette packets? They already look like props in a horror movie | Simon Jenkins

I hate smoking. But I also hate being told by the government how to look after my body. Cameron should leave smokers alone

Roll up! Roll up! The pre-election bonanza is under way, this time in the form of a grand festival of U-turns. Decisions made by Downing Street just months ago are being reversed almost daily. Westminster is like a banana republic, with convicts freed at whim to celebrate the caudillo's birthday.

Suddenly, payday loans are to be capped after all. Green levies and eco-taxes...

Stop lecturing the Scots. They want freedom, not wealth | Simon Jenkins

Westminster's arrogance has played straight into the SNP's hands: next year's Scottish referendum could deliver the shock of the century

No nation seeks independence to get rich. It seeks independence to get free. The Scottish leader, Alex Salmond, today published a 670-page account of the political economy of an independent Scotland prior to next year's referendum. Little of it really matters. Some 30 countries have separated from dominant neighbours in the last half-century, and few stopped...

For Iran, peaceful diplomacy has delivered what sabre-rattling could not | Simon Jenkins

Iran's nuclear deal with the west owes far more to the recent growth of democracy than sanctions

Good news so far on Iran. Western intervention in the Muslim world at the start of the 21st century has seemed nothing but the orchestration of failure. Yesterday's Geneva agreement on Iran's nuclear capacity hints at a chance that the onward march of nuclear armaments might be halted. Coming on top of the Syrian chemical weapons deal, diplomacy appears hesitantly ascendant.

The stumbling blocks rem...

Police crime figures are meaningless. Ban them | Simon Jenkins

Crime statistics could plummet, yet tell us nothing about whether the British are treating each other 'better or worse'

Awesome scenes in the Commons on Tuesday. MPs declared themselves dazed and horrified. Committee chairman Bernard Jenkin cried that he was "shocked". Liberal democrat Greg Mulholland was "amazed and appalled". Even the Home Office minister Damian Green was said to be furious, burbling that "thick red lines" had been crossed.

The cause of the mayhem was a couple of police offic...

The days of believing spy chiefs who say 'Trust us' are over | Simon Jenkins

The world now faces total electronic penetration, with huge power to those who control it. After Edward Snowden, we would be deluded to accept any assurances

Believe it or not, journalists can keep secrets. Nor do they keep any old secrets. They keep state and security secrets. In the last six months the journalists to whom the NSA-GCHQ archive was passed by Edward Snowden have kept more secrets safe than the entire Anglo-American intelligence community did in a decade. But then the trouble wi...

The bloody disaster of Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan is laid bare | Simon Jenkins

Bombs and militia violence make clear the folly of Britain's wars – the removal of law and order from a nation is devastating

Forty-three people died on Friday in clashes between militias in Libya, as did 22 on Sunday from bombs in Iraq. In Helmand, a return of the Taliban to power is now confidently expected. Why should we care? Why should it feature on our news?

The answer is that we helped to bring it about. Britain's three foreign wars in the past decade were uninvited military intervention...

Why should Britain build new towns when it already has great cities? | Simon Jenkins

Awarding prizes for the urbanisation of the countryside makes no sense while existing cities are given Cinderella status

I still wake at night sweating over the time at school when I came bottom in art. The teacher felt he should embrace town planning and told the class to design a city. We were each given a large sheet of paper with a wavy line across it for a river. We were issued with rulers, compasses and set squares.

I was nonplussed. Others were beavering away with grids and circles while...