Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 131

If only saying nothing were an option for William Hague of the FO | Simon Jenkins

As Northern Ireland goes up in flames, our foreign minister still lectures other states on nation-building. How dare he?

Communal rioting in two cities. Bricks and bottles thrown and civic buildings wrecked. Flags torn down and 15 police injured. Local politicians forced to go into hiding. It happens all over the world, but this week it happened in the United Kingdom, evidence of continuing lack of community concord in Northern Ireland.

Yet I am not aware of Israel's prime minister, B...

Pity this royal baby, its future a public obstacle course | Simon Jenkins

The idea of a 'royal family' has been a big mistake. Its members are forced to live under the glare of a terrible spotlight

I have no opinion on hyperemesis gravidarum. Maternity couture is not my forte. I am weak on Salic law. As for the logistics of twins as heirs to the throne, I leave that to the department of angels on pinheads. Royal babies are ooh-aah journalism. They soften the brain.

Yet after so much relentless bad news, we gulp down anything heart-warming like par...

Cameron is right about Leveson. This is a Rubicon we must not cross | Simon Jenkins

Ask the victims of press intrusion, and of course they will call for the gag and the gallows – but that doesn't make it right

The response to the Leveson inquiry, like the inquiry itself, is plagued by confusion. It was set up in emotional response to crimes, mostly of intrusion and libel, committed by journalists. Blanket coverage, in particular by the BBC, has given credence to what the prime minister unwisely termed "the victim test", accepted by both the Labour and Liberal Democrat leaders...

This bid to force all schools into line will end in failure | Simon Jenkins

The craving for uniformity in public services has become a frenzy, but Michael Gove cannot run every classroom

Another day, another league table. Today's report on local education authorities in England is clearly designed to show that local democracy cannot be trusted to deliver an equal standard of schools nationwide. Therefore even more power should be given to an all-seeing, all-caring central government under the ever-benign education secretary, Michael Gove. He is to set up a new re...

Give prisoners the vote. But not because Europe says so | Simon Jenkins

It's wrong that laws can be imposed by the court of human rights. But Britain signed up to this club and its rules voluntarily

British prisoners should be free to vote. Denying them is silly, an archaic spin-off from Britain's primitive obsession with locking up ever more of its citizens. The tabloids howl that villains, thugs and perverts have no rights, and are lucky to be alive. Parliament dares not disagree.

Yet it is one thing to demand votes for prisoners, another to want parlia...

Why Alan Bennett is wrong about the National Trust

His new play is a romp about attempts to save a crumbling stately home – with the National Trust as chief villain. Chairman Simon Jenkins has a few bones to pick with its elitism

Alan Bennett closes his new play People with his heroine saying: "Let lost be lost. Let gone be gone, and not fetched back." It is a neat way of rounding off Bennett's assault on the National Trust, and on "people" in general.

The play is a lightweight romp through Bennett's familiar fare of ancient institutions, male...

David Cameron's Hitler talk misses the real enemy in our midst | Simon Jenkins

The prime minister summoned the wartime spirit in his battle to revive Britain, but he has picked the wrong target

You can always tell when a debate has left the rails. Someone mentions Hitler. The prime minister is becoming ever more surreal. His words seem to emanate not from the seat of government but from the seat of his pants. Cameron is in part echoing his hero, Tony Blair, who after two years in power was showing his similar inexperience of high office by wailing of "the scars on m...

Leaders should be sacked for incompetence, not cheating | Simon Jenkins

US generals Petraeus and Allen had to bow to what feels close to mob rule. Is this how we do accountability now?

Most commanders humiliated by two enemies in a row can expect to resign. Not in America. There, you are done for if you have two mistresses in a row. David Petraeus could survive Iraq and Afghanistan. He could strike fear into the Mahdi army and the Taliban. His downfall was caused by Paula and Jill.

Not since the Duchess of Richmond's ball before Waterloo have warriors been so feted...

Bureaucracy has become the BBC's dieback disease | Simon Jenkins

So unwieldy is its vast, multilayered hierarchy that the corporation has lost all capacity to allocate blame for its mistakes

Who is next for the chop? Politicians, journalists and bankers have been butchered in the marketplace. My guess is that managers are the next victims of the media mob-rule that passes for accountability in today's public realm. There may be honest managers, but there were honest politicians, journalists and bankers, and much good it did their professions. Once a group i...

Bureacracy has become the BBC's dieback disease | Simon Jenkins

So unwieldy is its vast, multilayered hierarchy that the corporation has lost all capacity to allocate blame for its mistakes

Who is next for the chop? Politicians, journalists and bankers have been butchered in the marketplace. My guess is that managers are the next victims of the media mob-rule that passes for accountability in today's public realm. There may be honest managers, but there were honest politicians, journalists and bankers, and much good it did their professions. Once a group i...