Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 121

Nigel Farage has made an offer the Tories shouldn't refuse | Simon Jenkins

The Tories are simply too unpopular to turn down a Ukip pact in local elections – it might just keep them in power

Ukip's offer not to stand against local Conservative candidates who agree with its policies should be a no-brainer for the Tories. Bring it on. Why should the party order a Eurosceptic Tory MP to commit suicide, just because David Cameron dislikes the Ukip leader, Nigel Farage? Why should the Tories collectively deny themselves any way of securing a majority in the next parliament...

Simon Jenkins’ favourite English views – interactive

Writer, rambler and chairman of the National Trust Simon Jenkins has distilled a life spent exploring the English countryside. Here we bring you 30 of them

Simon JenkinsPaddy Allen

If we fear an Iranian bomb, we should back Hassan Rouhani | Simon Jenkins

There is no advantage for the west in treating Iran's president as a liar or imposing sanctions. He needs our full support

An old maxim holds that you trust a man by what he does, not what he says. The charm offensive in New York of the new Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, is testing the maxim to destruction. It has become a diplomatic cliffhanger, with the potential to rank with Nixon in China and Thatcher in Russia. Rouhani has released political prisoners, promised civil rights, called th...

Trident: this £100bn Armageddon weapon won't make us one jot safer | Simon Jenkins

The consensus among the three main parties on Trident merely illustrates that the defence lobby scares politicians stupid

It must rank as the daftest, costliest question in British politics. How many Trident submarines does Britain need? Medieval schoolmen sharpened their brains by counting angels on pinheads. British policymakers sharpen theirs by counting warheads on missiles. They know it is irrational but the money, the language, the whiz-bangs, the uniforms turn their...

Kenya mall attack: David Cameron's rush to 'solve the crisis' won't help | Simon Jenkins

Cameron has helped send al-Shabaab to the top of the terrorist charts by summoning Cobra. Shopping malls, like Westgate, are easy targets for extremists

What is David Cameron doing by racing south and plunging yet again into his favourite bunker, Cobra? British prime ministers are famously eager to escape royal audiences in Balmoral. But Cameron's flight shows indecent haste. He apparently needs to solve the Kenyan hostage crisis. Really? The Queen was doing Kenya crises before he was born.

Som...

Edward Snowden has started a global debate. So why the silence in Britain? | Simon Jenkins

We're subject to huge unwarranted surveillance – but Westminster's useful idiots are more likely to sanction than criticise it

• Malcolm Rifkind: What rubbish, Sir Simon!

The Brazilian president cancels a state visit to Washington. The German justice minister talks of "a Hollywood nightmare". His chancellor, Angela Merkel, ponders offering Edward Snowden asylum. The EU may even end the "safe harbour" directive which would force US-based computer servers to relocate to European regulation. Russi...

Vladimir Putin can preen himself over Syria but the pressure on him is intense | Simon Jenkins

The Russian leader has cunningly upstaged Obama. But now he's the dominant player, his own reputation is on the line

The dark curtain draws back and over the bloodstained stage flutters a small white dove. Some twist of war has sent it aloft. Some missile roar may soon bring it crashing to Earth. But while its wings still flap we gaze at it, mesmerised by hope.

Syria is now the war game of choice among the armchair strategists of Washington and London. Cynics battle with optimists, belligerents...

Spare us a 'national debate' on veils | Simon Jenkins

Home Office minister Jeremy Browne wants the nation to discuss how Muslim women dress, but it is hardly a menace to society

Do we really want a "national debate" about veiling? A Home Office minister, Jeremy Browne, thinks so. France banned the wearing of the full-face veil in public in 2010 with Belgium following not long after. Their debates have been bitter and divisive.

Browne is reflecting a swirl of conflicting pressures. Some women's groups want liberation from social authoritarianism. O...

Michael Gove should forget maths and turn to marshmallows | Simon Jenkins

The education secretary wants to test children from the age of five. If he had real conviction he'd start far earlier

Michael Gove is clearly a wimp. The education secretary's proposal to extend "baseline" testing to five-year-olds is too late. He should start at five months. Everyone knows that five months is the crucial developmental stage, when the infant brain adjusts from teat to tooth and is most vulnerable to parental (rather than ministerial) influence. "Give me a child until he's...

HS2 isn't the next Olympics. It's a domestic Afghan war | Simon Jenkins

In high-speed rail as in war, when Cameron and Osborne take refuge in the flag it is a safe bet they know they have lost

The plan for a new high-speed train has become the Afghan war of British domestic policy. There is no more debate about whether it makes sense. The only question is how long can its apologists hold out, as costs soar and supporters slip away in the night. Has Patrick McLoughlin, the brave, embattled transport secretary, the guts to tell his bosses in Downing Street that the...