Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 12

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...

Whisper it, but in opposing Rishi Sunak’s smoking ban, Liz Truss might be right | Simon Jenkins

Restricting flavoured vapes make sense, but halting tobacco sales altogether for all entering adulthood is bizarre

At least twice as many school pupils smoke cannabis as smoke tobacco. Cannabis is illegal, tobacco is legal. If legality meant anything, the figures should be the other way round.

Smoking, like alcohol and narcotic drugs, is both enjoyable and harmful. The state’s job is to regulate the balance. Health education, together with nudge measures like banning smoking in public places, have...

The endgame looms for Sunak and the Tories. ‘Rwanda’ will be the epitaph on their political grave | Simon Jenkins

If he has any concern for his reputation, the PM will shelve this doomed mistake and do everything to rescue public services

The ship goes down and the panic starts. As the Tory party lurches towards the electoral rocks, the bridge is losing control and the crew are taking to the boats. Or at least some of them are, joined this week by a disaffected backbencher, Simon Clarke, and a reported band of a dozen rebels. Clarke’s thesis is that “an electoral massacre” can only be avoided if the ship mut...

Brexit trade checks will cost £330m a year. Starmer must revisit this disastrous deal | Simon Jenkins

The price of the Tories’ new border regime beggars belief. In a cost of living crisis, it’s a bill we can’t afford

The government is planning to increase the cost of doing business in Britain by a total of £330m a year.

From the end of this month and again in April, it will start imposing a battery of border controls on agricultural trade with the EU. Fierce protests from farming and fishing interests have delayed these controls five times. But Rishi Sunak is frantic to show himself to be macho on...

Prince William should finish what Charles started – and sever the ridiculous ties of church and state | Simon Jenkins

Rumours that the heir isn’t religious are heartening: monarchy is dubious enough without the Anglican mumbo-jumbo

Once upon a time, news that the heir to the throne may decline his “supreme governorship” of the Church of England would have caused an earthquake. Bishops would have wept as theologians worried all night. Was the 1534 Reformation for nothing?

As it is, the gossip extracted in the Daily Mail from the latest royal pot-boiler suggests that Prince William does not worship much and that he...

England’s secondary schools are Dickensian. No wonder children are staying away | Simon Jenkins

The government has made the classroom a place to be avoided. Keegan’s war on truancy should start with a little self-reflection

This year’s most alarming statistic so far is that one parent in four thinks it is fine for children to skip school. Persistent absenteeism in England has doubled since lockdown, from 10% to 22% of pupils. A third of a million parents are now being fined as a result. With working from home now good for grownups, the habit is clearly spreading to schoolchildren.

This week ...

King Charles should follow Denmark’s example – and tell us when he’ll abdicate | Simon Jenkins

Queen Margrethe is the latest European monarch to make way for new blood. It puts our archaic system to shame

The abdication of Queen Margrethe of Denmark in favour of her son Frederik is a sign of a sensible constitutional monarchy. The 82-year-old queen felt “time was running out and the ills were increasing”. It was best to hand over now. In this, Margrethe follows the abdication over the past decade or so of monarchs in the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain. It is now being pressed on the 77-yea...