Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 120

David Cameron should cut the foreign jaunts and focus on the 2015 election | Simon Jenkins

This is a critical point for the Tory leader. He should be fixing his campaign plans, but instead he's breaking every record for global wanderlust

When in trouble, scram. This is not the best maxim for a politician with his back to the wall, but for David Cameron it is understandable. His ICM poll rating has lost the shine of economic recovery and has reverted to the eight-point deficit of last February. The shires are rebelling, and Labour's Ed Miliband is surging. Small wonder the Northolt d...

Typhoon Haiyan: the pretence that there's always some way out | Simon Jenkins

The craving to help is the most benign human instinct and can't be suppressed. But some things are beyond our control

The horror of the Philippines typhoon evokes that of another recent human tragedy, the civil war in Syria. The pictures are similar, fleeing families, stunned, pathetic children. We see people enduring unimaginable privation through no cause of their own. The disasters are different, one natural, the other manmade. Yet we look at them and yearn to be empowered. We long to help....

Cities are cool, unpredictable and hard to control: Russell Brand should run for mayor | Simon Jenkins

They are our future states, electing dynamic leaders and welcoming new politics – as the win by New York's Bill de Blasio shows

If Russell Brand and Jeremy Paxman are so keen on a new politics, why don't they run for mayor? Mayors are direct democracy. They are cool. They do things and have to account for them. Mayoralty is the perfect outlet for a couple of old fogeys moaning on television that voting isn't what it used to be.

New York has now ended 20 years of Republican mayors and voted in B...

Ed Miliband's living wage is as naive as his energy price freeze | Simon Jenkins

This Heath-like market intervention would create bureaucratic chaos – the only jobs to benefit would be those in the civil service

If you are desperate, offer money. The old maxims are the best. But even the murky world of giveaway politics would see Ed Miliband's subsidised "living wage" as an odd gimmick. If poor people are short of money through no fault of their own, surely they should all be given money. Today Miliband offered just a lucky few the benefit of his Battersea speech, drenched...

Britain's response to the surveillance scandal should ring every alarm bell | Simon Jenkins

In America even the NSA admits reform is needed, but David Cameron expects Britain to accept GCHQ spying on us

What separates a necessary defender of the British state and a Stasi in the making? Seventy world human rights organisations today write to the British prime minister, deploring his response to recent revelations of what his spies have been up to. His response, in their view, has been "to condemn rather than to celebrate investigative journalism".

David Cameron's remarks have been extr...

The Red Cross needs to reclaim its hijacked neutrality | Simon Jenkins

As it turns 150, the ICRC must work to reassert its reputation – undermined by Blair's wars and political adventurism

Polio has broken out in Syria. What are we going to do about it? There are refugees starving in the Sahara and drowning off Italy. Shias are being massacred in Iraq, Congolese are being raped, Egyptians tortured, Roma trafficked, Pashtun villagers drone-bombed. You can't stand idly by. Do something.

This week is the 150th anniversary of the forming of the International Committee...

Money sloshing about the HS2 rail link could be better spent elsewhere | Simon Jenkins

Tories can blame Labour for the line's demise, use the billions on far more useful rail and road links – and reap a publicity bonanza

An Amerindian tribe, when about to be attacked, was reputed to haul its treasure – gold, tents and wives – on to the battlefield and burn them in front of the enemy. Overawed at such a display of wealth, the enemy fled.

This appears to be David Cameron's approach to high-speed trains. Britain's commercial rivals will gasp at his extravagance and throw up their ha...

Our shambolic energy policy needs more than just competition | Simon Jenkins

The government is right to try and break the big six oligopoly, but a deep audit is required if we are to aid the poor or the planet

Britain's energy policy is chaotic, lost in a morass of subsidies, regulations, lobbies and taboos. No one can understand it, which is why most retreat to slogans and prejudice. The revelation that British Gas treats my "direct debit" credit balance as a free loan merely adds fury to my own contribution.

The government is proposing to give the statutory regulators...

Is nuclear power the solution to our energy needs? – five-minute video debate

Columnist Simon Jenkins debates the future of nuclear power with Craig Bennett, director of policy at Friends of the Earth

Simon JenkinsCraig BennettPhil Maynard

Empire of digital chip meets nemesis: the law of diminishing political returns | Simon Jenkins

The innovations of the past few years, initially so exhilarating, show ever more downsides

Route 101 leads south from San Francisco to Silicon Valley and the cybertowns of Mountain View and Cupertino. Rush-hour traffic is dotted with "working" coaches of computer staff already at their screens – Google ones white, Apple ones silver.

On arrival, they enter a nirvana of designer landscapes and ethnic cafes where they plot the next stage of the cyber-revolution.

I wonder how many ever predicted tha...