Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 141

'The surrounding modern buildings show no respect for the Tower of London'

The iconic 11th-century citadel that is the Tower of London, with its ancient walls, streets, steps and turrets, has been let down by a towering failure of City planners, says Simon Jenkins

Will Self on Trafalgar Square
Jonathan Glancey on the British Museum

Bad news. Unesco may soon strip London's two most prominent tourist sites, Westminster's Parliament Square and the Tower of London in the City of their world heritage status. Chief reason is the towering Shard, which will be western...

Don't dismiss nimbyism – it's the default mode of politics | Simon Jenkins

Politicians are quick to sneer at complaints about HS2, but the tale of Boris's airport shows how hypocritical they are

Who is most favoured of them all? In the age of the lobbyist, which is the most expensively protected, fussed over and cosseted interest in Britain? The answer is any Londoner within hearing distance of a future jet plane. If a railway, a motorway, a wind turbine or an executive housing estate should pop up in your backyard, the government will tell you to get stuffed as a...

Ed Miliband, welcome to the coalition – but don't stay too long | Simon Jenkins

The Labour leader's sanity on cuts is what the economy needs. But long term, a healthy democracy needs real opposition

A double-dip recession is a national emergency, or it should be. If there were no coalition already in place, something like one would surely be demanded. It worked for Ramsay MacDonald in 1931 and Winston Churchill in 1940. Now that Labour's Ed Miliband and Ed Balls acknowledge the need to remedy the excesses of the past and find a measure of economic truth and...

'Devo max' would make Scotland fiscally responsible – why does Cameron oppose it? | Simon Jenkins

Only a tribalistic craving for central control explains the prime minister's urge to defend the UK against Scottish autonomy

Here we go again. Ireland gone. Scotland going. Next is Wales, and then where? Cornwall? The Isle of Wight? There is no knowing what the ineptitude of London politics may do to the British confederacy. The latest row over yes or no to Scottish "independence" is mere play-acting. The real issue is option three, "devo max". London hates it. Scotland craves it.

For the past ...

High-speed rail: the greatest waste of public money after aircraft carriers | Simon Jenkins

HS2 will cost taxpayers £1bn a year in interest alone, all so a few rich business people can get to Birmingham earlier

The go-ahead for the £32bn High Speed 2 railway to the Midlands makes it the biggest public project in peacetime. It also qualifies as the worst. Objection has nothing to do with taxpayers' money enraging Tory shires, much as this delights the left. It has little to do with the loss of beautiful countryside, which should at least count for something. The fact is that a vast...

Assisted dying: the government must not visit indignity on the terminally ill | Simon Jenkins

The coalition should not declare assisted dying a matter of 'individual conscience' while leaving it subject to criminal law

The one important response to this week's Falconer report on legalising assisted dying comes from the government of the day. On Thursday the justice department duly declared that "any change to the law in this emotive and contentious area is an issue of individual conscience and a matter for parliament to decide, rather than government policy."

This is rubbish. If the...

Why is Britain ramping up sanctions against Iran? | Simon Jenkins

Sabre-rattling at Washington's behest is an idiocy, and likely to do little other than escalate the steps to open conflict

'The dog returns to its vomit, and the sow returns to her mire/ And the burnt fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the fire." Kipling was right. Britain is out of Iraq and desperate to get out of Afghanistan. So why gird ourselves for a fight with Iran, a proud country of 75 million people with whom we cannot go to war without taking leave of our senses?

Do any of B...

Britain's imperial echoes have led it to a ruinous decade of wars | Simon Jenkins

The UK has been belligerent to the Muslim world – while not being threatened by any state

What do Britons "want" in the coming year? An ambassador to Washington was once asked the question on radio and replied, "That's very kind of you, a box of candied fruits would do." Such humble responses are now out of date. As the season of goodwill slithers into that of New Year's resolution, the urge to tell the world how to behave seems uncontrollable.

We can suppress a yawn at David Cameron's sermon...

At this time of year, let's thank God for churches | Simon Jenkins

Believer or not, Christmas is a reminder of what these places of worship do so well – maintaining and expressing community

God has blessings, even for atheists. Chief among them is the British Christmas. Cleared of its commercial and religious clutter it has become the nation's collective version of a Buddhist sabbatical, an increasingly extended retreat into family and self almost devoid of externalities. It is a time when Britons behave quite unlike they do for the rest of the year. In...

The government is so draconian, yet so casual towards dodgy private cash | Simon Jenkins

At times like this we need an equality of misery. Yet public spending is slashed while Revenue & Customs caves in to the wealthy

Many years ago I accidentally put a tax invoice into my May file instead of the previous March, thus missing the relevant tax year. When the discrepancy emerged, an Inland Revenue inspector said he would "let me off" with no more than the tax, the interest and, as I recall, a £1,000 fine.

After reading today's Commons report on tax avoidance, I realise my mistake. I ...