Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 122

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...

Syria: it takes more courage to say there is nothing outsiders can do | Simon Jenkins

The human misery in Syria is agonising to watch. But intervention-lite is a bad idea for all but the politicians' egos

The urge of Britain's political establishment to attack Syria is in retreat. The prime minister's eagerness to join an American bombing run on Damascus has hit parliamentary opposition. Though Thursday's Commons vote was ambivalent on intervention as such, it was clear that there must be some clearance through the United Nations.

As David Cameron virtually admitted, Downing Str...

The real threat to our way of life? Not terrorists or faraway dictators, but our own politicians and securocrats | Simon Jenkins

Convinced national security is for ever at risk, western governments mimic the fanaticism they claim to despise

What is Britain's national security? At a time when the country once again ponders war, the arguments used should be precise and the language clear. This is seldom the case. The division of the world into good guys and bad guys, democrats and dictators, terrorists and counter-terrorists, not only insults peaceful diplomacy and promotes war. It pollutes the domestic rule of law and ci...

Ashes 2013: Bumbling officialdom robbed us of a true sporting finale | Simon Jenkins

By tamely calling time on the last Ashes match due to bad light, umpires show why cricket deserves all the ridicule it gets

Sunday's decision to call off the Oval cricket test for "bad light" beggared belief. The most exciting sporting climax of the year had been set up by both teams to see a great match thrillingly concluded for the benefit of the crowd. They were stopped by fumbling old sports administrators concerned only by whether some "health and safety" official might hold them to blame...

So the innocent have nothing to fear? After David Miranda we now know where this leads | Simon Jenkins

The destructive power of state snooping is on display for all to see. The press must not yield to this intimidation

You've had your fun: now we want the stuff back. With these words the British government embarked on the most bizarre act of state censorship of the internet age. In a Guardian basement, officials from GCHQ gazed with satisfaction on a pile of mangled hard drives like so many book burners sent by the Spanish Inquisition. They were unmoved by the fact that copies of the...

Is Glenn Greenwald's journalism now viewed as a 'terrorist' occupation? | Simon Jenkins

David Miranda's detention shows that being the partner of the man who interviewed the NSA whistleblower is enough to see you treated like a terrorist

The detention at Heathrow on Sunday of the Brazilian David Miranda is the sort of treatment western politicians love to deplore in Putin's Russia or Ahmadinejad's Iran. His "offence" under the 2000 Terrorism Act was apparently to be the partner of a journalist, Glenn Greenwald, who had reported for the Guardian on material released by the America...

Gibraltar and the Falklands deny the logic of history | Simon Jenkins

These relics of empire pay hardly any UK tax – but when the neighbours cut up nasty, they demand the British protect them

Nothing beats a gunboat. HMS Illustrious glided out of Portsmouth on Monday, past HMS Victory and cheering crowds of patriots. Within a week it will be off Gibraltar, a mere cannon shot from Cape Trafalgar. The nation's breast heaves, the tears prick. The Olympic spirit is off to singe the king of Spain's beard. How dare they keep honest British citizens waiting six hours a...

Labour: the champion of what, exactly? | Simon Jenkins

Ed Miliband's party has to chart a recovery distinct from the hesitancy of the coalition – not simply offer a pale imitation

August politics is always hell. The happy are on holiday. The miserable have free rein to whinge. Ed Miliband returns to work today amid a chorus of charges that Labour has no vision, no strategy, no policies. With the coalition emerging from recession with a predictable upturn in popularity, the old doubts about Miliband's competence are revived.

Getting Labour into shap...

Parking fines rocket because of the centre's addiction to power | Simon Jenkins

Conservatives like Eric Pickles espouse freedom for local councils, but they have done nothing to show they mean it

The Sunday queue at Lots Road car pound might be an upmarket soup kitchen. Yuppies and hedgies line up to retrieve the previous week's towed away Porsches and BMWs. Many victims are foreigners, relieved at their vehicles being not stolen but merely impounded, a relief that turns to rage when they find they must pay £400 (and steeply rising) to get their cars back.

The car pound is...