Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 12

Nato is growing reckless over Ukraine – and Russia’s German military leak proves it | Simon Jenkins

An intercepted meeting on sending Taurus missiles to Ukraine suggests the west is on the brink of a risky and futile escalation

The German armed forces are mad. The leaking by Moscow of a 38-minute discussion between the head of the Luftwaffe and senior officers on sending Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine suggests that Nato’s will not to escalate the current war is weakening. The meeting, reportedly held on an unencrypted line, had all the secrecy of a teenage groupchat. It boosted Vladimir Puti...

Like a pub argument on Love Island – The Jury TV series shows all that’s wrong with Britain's judicial system | Simon Jenkins

The level of debate was like a saloon bar shouting match. But then, all juries are a medieval hangover, ripe for reform

This article contains spoilers about the final episode of The Jury: Murder Trial

Should juries be abolished? Last night’s Channel 4 docudrama of a real trial, The Jury: Murder Trial, opened with the question: “Can we trust our justice system?” The only answer any reasonable viewer could give was no.

This four-part series assembled two separate juries to pass judgment on a real-lif...

The money Sunak ‘saves’ from HS2 is getting smaller with every announcement | Simon Jenkins

While the PM makes empty promises to the north, he lacks the courage to cancel the white elephant London-Birmingham line

Rishi Sunak’s high-profile announcement of projects to be apparently funded by killing the northern leg of HS2 is a gem of political cynicism. He has made the announcement twice before, on 4 October and 17 November last year. He seems to have forgotten.

Each time the sum appears to shrink and delivery grows ever more distant. October began with £36bn for a schoolboy wishlist of ...

It's unhenged: millions will be denied one of England's greatest views | Simon Jenkins

A high court judge has ruled to allow the £1.7bn Stonehenge tunnel – and robbed motorists of a precious glimpse of something ancient

The most exhilarating view in Britain is to be abolished. A high court judge this week brought a 30-year battle over Stonehenge to a conclusion by allowing the building of a tunnel to bypass it. Despite opposition from campaigners, archaeologists, planning inspectors and Unesco, the spectacle of one of the most famous prehistoric structures in the world will in futu...

The right to roam … but you have to trespass to get there. England’s countryside rules are truly absurd | Simon Jenkins

It is a scandal that 2,500 beauty spots are designated as places to walk and enjoy, but no one can legally reach them except the landowners

Every country walker knows the cry. Where the hell is the footpath? A right of way with no signpost is not a legal right at all. It is an invitation to trespass.

The revelation that 2,500 areas of English countryside that supposedly enjoy a “right to roam” can be reached only by trespassing over private land is absurd. It means that some 2,700 hectares of open...

Let King Charles’s illness finally change how we speak about cancer: it’s not about ‘winning’ or ‘losing’ a ‘war’ | Simon Jenkins

As someone treated for bowel cancer, I think attitudes must change but also the language. Some of it is tactless, some ridiculous

King Charles has cancer. Coverage of this story in the days since the announcement has been funereal. Daily bulletins are issued. Heads of state send condolences. Pictures portray the monarch ashen-faced. The global media pitch camp outside Buckingham Palace, and wait.

Will the cancer taboo never vanish? Half of Britons who have “had cancer” do something called survive,...

Yes, Donald Trump’s Putin comments were unhinged – but he’s right to question Nato’s future | Simon Jenkins

Saying he would ‘encourage’ Russian attacks on non-paying members was outrageous. Europe needs a vision for peace, with or without US support

Donald Trump is “appalling and unhinged”, says everyone. His invitation to Vladimir Putin at the weekend to invade Nato and “do what the hell he wants” if Europe does not spend more on its own defence, “puts all our security at risk”, warns Nato boss Jens Stoltenberg. The alliance is supposed to be the bastion of liberty against dictatorship, not about who ...

Expensive and loathed, ‘the Slab’ will be a terrible monument. It’s being called Gove Towers and he deserves it | Simon Jenkins

The London megabuilding given the go-ahead this week is a giant symbol of profit over community

The Slab is to rise after all. What is clearly intended as the most prominent office block in central London will dominate the bend in the River Thames directly opposite Somerset House and the Temple. Two glass and concrete slabs, one rising 20 storeys, will replace the London Studios tower between the National Theatre and the Oxo Tower. They will form the fulcrum of every view between St Paul’s and Bi...

How to fix Britain’s crumbling NHS? Whatever you do, don’t ask a doctor | Simon Jenkins

My conversations with senior staff tell me this: only radical reform will work. If he takes control, Wes Streeting must be brave

I recently asked two wise doctors, senior in their profession, what was wrong with today’s NHS. Was it money? Was it recruitment, or pay, or structure? Without consulting each other, they answered what was wrong in one voice: “Us.”

Tales of NHS woe flow almost daily. Britain is now ranked 30th out of the 49 richest OECD countries for infant mortality, with matters gettin...

Northern Ireland will leave the union, and Scotland could too. True devolution is the only way to save it | Simon Jenkins

Yes, there are leadership crises everywhere, but make no mistake: the UK’s future rests on devolving more powers

Devolution is in disarray. A quarter of a century after its introduction by the Blair government, the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish constitutions are tired and tarnished. This week’s Covid inquiry in Scotland has revealed Nicola Sturgeon’s nationalist rule to be cliquish and shrouded in secrecy. Wales’s first minister, Labour’s Mark Drakeford, has resigned after plummeting approva...