Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 122

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...

On Syria, John Kerry is confusing international law with American pride | Simon Jenkins

The US secretary of state is in London pleading his case for strikes, but such missile attacks are poor law enforcers

Any reasonable person must accept that Syria's rulers used chemical weapons last month in the outskirts of Damascus. All weapons are awful. The west condoned their use by Saddam Hussein in Iraq and itself has deployed napalm and white phosphorous. But sarin is specifically illegal in international law and Barack Obama told Syria not to use it. Is his word to mean nothing?

The Am...

I marvel at Vasily Petrenko's bravery. But generalisations belong to bigotry | Simon Jenkins

Minorities like women conductors have made welcome strides – as a result of merit, not positive discrimination

The conductor of the National Youth and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic orchestras, Vasily Petrenko, thinks women conductors distract male players. "A cute girl on the podium," he says, deflects sexual energy and makes men "think about other things". Besides, when women have babies they find it "difficult to be as dedicated as is demanded in the business". To the Russian-born maestro, wo...

The west's threat to attack Syria is an idiotic gesture | Simon Jenkins

A sceptical public recognises the futility of launching a missile strike that will not topple Bashar al-Assad

The reason a missile attack on Syria is proving so unpopular on both sides of the Atlantic has nothing to do with neoimperial hubris. The reason is that it is a bad idea. "Punishing" a dictator for killing his own people by simply killing more of his own people seems beyond cruel. It seems stupid. It leads nowhere.

Public opinion may be a poor guide to the minutiae of state policy. But...