Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 140

We can love only a beloved. For all the others, try courtesy | Simon Jenkins

Her hymn to love was beautiful, but Jeannette Winterson's mistake is to generalise this most specific of emotions

The Guardian honoured Valentine's Day on Tuesday with a front page piece by Jeanette Winterson on love. It was a fine idea, given prominence over the euro, phone hacking and Syria. Winterson is a glorious writer and a delightful person. But why a woman? Why is it that only women can write of love?

The stereotype holds that women do love and men do lager. Women are delicate and...

Austerity fails, yet we're too shy to think outside the box | Simon Jenkins

Like Dickens's Mr Dorrit, we are hamstrung by our debt, denied the means to earn our recovery. An alternative is needed

Inflation is falling, debt is rising, growth is static and credit is edgy. All these are facts. There must be an economic equation that says what to do next. So where are the economists when we need them? As usual they have taken to the hills. You cannot get a straight answer for love nor money, even on Valentine's Day and from the Bank of England.

The global recession is...

In most countries the Harry Redknapp case wouldn't have reached a jury | Simon Jenkins

Redknapp's was the latest in a series of show trials – even if he had been guilty it could have been settled with a handshake

Now for 'Arry the Movie, a tale of fear and loathing in darkest Poole. It boasts a rags-to-riches hero – Harry Redknapp – along with Rosie his dog, a kindly Slav, Milan Mandaric, a villainous taxman and a Monte Carlo bank. Cheering from the terraces is a jury of 12 Londoners, good and true, who may know nothing of fiscal clawback but can tell a likely lad from an...

Deport Abu Qatada: or if not, give him the law's full protection | Simon Jenkins

Qatada champions al-Qaida and delights in terrorist outrages. But Britain is robust enough to tolerate madcap clerics

There is no argument. The Muslim cleric Abu Qatada is as unpleasant a character as ever graced Britain's shores. Wanted on terrorism charges in eight countries, including his own of Jordan, his championing of al-Qaida and his delight in terrorist outrages puts him beyond any reasonable pale. He propounds violence and seeks to corrupt the young. There is no obligation on any...

Queen Elizabeth – studious, stoic and worthy of her diamond jubilee | Simon Jenkins

In many ways Elizabeth is the model monarch, not so much ruling as representing an institution that survives all upsets

One law the Queen must have enjoyed signing was that banning age discrimination. Had she needed to apply for her job back when she was just 25, the selectors might have balked at her age. Sixty years on, she has played a blinder. On any showing, the Queen's jubilee can be celebrated for longevity and dedication to duty, in the face of often insufferable tedium. In her...

Still Britain rattles sabres. Nothing has been learned from Afghanistan | Simon Jenkins

As we 'withdraw' from Afghanistan across the Taliban's golden bridge, we could be heading for catastrophe over Iran

The Afghan war, the longest in US history, is "scheduled to end" a year early, according to the Pentagon. Wars these days run to electoral timetables. The endgame is couched not as victory, let alone defeat, but as "expedited withdrawal".

It is obvious that Taliban commanders are reading Sun Tzu, and "building the enemy a golden bridge across which to retreat". They are talking...

Ban bonuses, and Fred Goodwin could have kept his knighthood | Simon Jenkins

Even bankers want the bonus culture outlawed. It's a conspiracy to extract money from firms that properly belongs to others

Ban bonuses. They are mad. Discretionary gifts to top executives from company funds should be considered a malpractice. Most British directors are paid exceptionally well – over 40% more last year according to one report – and if the result is exceptional that is right and proper. Profits should be returned to those who own them, the risk-bearing shareholders. That is...

With a ban on bonuses, Fred Goodwin could even have kept his knighthood | Simon Jenkins

Even bankers want the bonus culture outlawed. It's a conspiracy to extract money from firms that properly belongs to others

Ban bonuses. They are mad. Discretionary gifts to top executives from company funds should be considered a malpractice. Most British directors are paid exceptionally well – over 40% more last year according to one report – and if the result is exceptional that is right and proper. Profits should be returned to those who own them, the risk-bearing shareholders. That is...

The UK economy needs a shower of money in the high street | Simon Jenkins

Printing money might not be dignified, but it does work – just keep the banks and the credit rating agencies out of it

It works like this. You get De La Rue to print £14bn of banknotes, roughly the amount extracted from high-street spending in extra VAT this year. You send a fleet of vans to transfer the money to Northolt and other regional airports. You load it into squadrons of RAF helicopters and, in full view of television cameras, scatter it over shopping streets the length and breadth...

David Cameron needs to understand the state before he can cut the deficit | Simon Jenkins

Cameron is right: Britain's deficit must be tackled. But his failure to fully comprehend the public sector could prove costly

I am amazed the cabinet's collective head does not burst. As massive clouds gather over Europe's economy, every time it tries to ease the public sector deficit it must run the gauntlet of a dark tunnel, full of people punching, jostling, jeering and screaming. From police to poverty traps, from housing benefit to Hamlet, from submarines to single mothers, the only...