Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 134

Yeo's runway taunt is big-willy politics, and that is the most dangerous politics of all | Simon Jenkins

The third runway appeals to paranoid machismo, not reason. A recession is no excuse for pushing through dumb projects

Big-willy politics is back. If we do not build a third runway at Heathrow, says Tory MP Tim Yeo, Britain will "slide towards insignificance". Britain will leave the premier league, lose out to China and become a second-rate power. Those who refuse to build third runways are mice not men. As for manifesto pledges and coalition agreements, they are for wimps. Real men love planes...

The west's hypocrisy over Pussy Riot is breathtaking | Simon Jenkins

Our courts now jail at the drop of a headline – for stealing water or abuse sent on Twitter. So who are we to condemn Russia?

Anyone in England and Wales with a dog out of control can now be jailed for six months. If the dog causes injury, the maximum term is to be two years. I have no sympathy for such people. Keeping these beasts is weird, and those who do it probably need treatment. But the Defra minister, Lord Taylor of Holbeach, complained in May that fewer than 20 people were in jai...

England's chocolate-box tourist towns and villages

Postcard-perfect towns and villages up and down Britain are tourist favourites for good reason

They are gems in the nation's tourist crown, honeypots beloved of day-trippers and artists, and derided by gritty novelists. They embody Englishness to makers of chocolate boxes and expatriates dreaming of home. From Lulworth to Broadway, Castle Combe to Robin Hood's Bay, the picture-book villages of England are famous for a reason. They are lovely.

Clovelly in north Devon tumbles down a wooded hillsi...

The busted British economy needs more than just Olympic spirit | Simon Jenkins

If the Games taught us anything it is that daring to be different can work. Let's take the same approach to stimulus

The prime minister says "Team GB's work is done", and that "now it's GB's turn". What does he mean? David Cameron identified the Olympic contribution to the nation's psyche as, variously, ingenuity, joy, friendship, tolerance, eccentricity, welcome and inspiration. He wins a gold for abstract nouns, but there is truth in them. The London Olympics delivered its undeniable pa...

Nick Clegg's in the last ditch. Now is the time for him to come out fighting | Simon Jenkins

Defeat over Lords reform gives the the Lib Dems a chance to impact on coalition policy where it most matters: the economy

Meanwhile, back at coalition ranch, the Olympic spirit has gone. In the debacle over House of Lords reform, David Cameron barely scrapes a bronze for party discipline and Nick Clegg has been stripped of his gold for loyalty. Ed Miliband is moving fast up the medals table.

The Liberal Democrats are justified in feeling aggrieved at Cameron abandoning Lords reform, particularl...

The London Olympics has much to delight – but forget any talk of a legacy | Simon Jenkins

London 2012 is fun and competently delivered, but to think we'll ever recover the cost is like believing in Santa Claus

The Olympic Games is fine. The facilities at Stratford are as good as ever. The park, the flowers, the "Henman hill" are a delight. The opening was appropriately zany. Above all, television's celebration of youthful energy – when spared the endless BBC chat – is a diversion from the woes of the world. Nor is it fair to chide the athletes for Locog's incompetence, soldiers pac...

Bravo to the Chinese badminton players – they're just trying to win medals | Simon Jenkins

Criticising a nation's athletes for wanting to win as many medals as possible is to forget what the Olympics is really about

The attacks on Chinese and Korean badminton players are grossly unfair. They were doing their best with added cunning. Day and after day we read relentless hyperbole about the vital importance to national pride of winning: not winning a heat or a round or an exhibition, but winning medals. So obsessed is the media with this single index that the BBC has stopped displayin...

Eurozone crisis: the bankers are happy to play Nero as Europe burns | Simon Jenkins

To prop up the euro – whose survival is vital only for the banks' balance sheets – a generation is thrown into poverty

While Rome burned, Nero put on fancy dress, stood on a tower and played his lyre. He sang of the Sack of Ilium and roasted Christians at the stake to light up his party. The people were taxed to pay for his extravagance, but he appeased them with games of ever increasing spectacle and sadism. He clad slaves in deerskins and had lions eat them. It was immensely popular. When Ne...

Tony Blair may itch to return, but he faces a cruel reality check | Simon Jenkins

Forget the comeback. Only an act of grovelling atonement would salvage the ex-prime minister's reputation

Britain in its hour of trouble needs a Tony Blair. It has a queen, a prime minister, a chancellor, a leader of the opposition, but it is deficient in Tony Blairs. Or that is what Tony Blair thinks. He last year earned £20m from this and that, and feels that now his purpose "is not to make money but to make a difference". The old phraseology still brings a tear to the eye.

The result has bee...

London 2012 Olympics: what price fleeting joy? For Britons, it's £9bn | Simon Jenkins

The Olympic effect on 'wellbeing' will be hard to calculate. Its damage to the public finances, I fear, rather less so

Is the earth starting to move for you? Years of Olympic foreplay this week reach their climax. The British government has stripped, daubed and ravished its capital city. Nowhere outside the communist bloc has power coupled sport so clumsily as in London 2012. National ecstasy has been declared a duty to the state. The slightest protest is unpatriotic.

We could all doubtless do...