Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 143

Coalition hypocrisy lies behind this war on motorists | Simon Jenkins

Capped and cut back, local councils can't raise money by any other means, so it's no surprise they pick on car drivers

I do not live in Westminster, but I declare an interest in its parking policy. At evenings and weekend I drive to the gilded city regularly, regarding the libertarian freedom to park as a boon and a blessing to life in London. It is an asset alike to West End businesses, visitors and those who work unsocial hours. It leads to no noticeable gridlock. It causes no harm.

As of...

Great English Dates No 10: 1832

Why did the English not rise up in revolution like the French?

The question that should dominate the history of England in the 19th century is why it saw no imitation of the French revolution. An election in 1830 was consumed by talk of political reform, but the Tories retained a majority and their leader, the Duke of Wellington, remarked that "as long as I hold any station … I shall hold it my duty to resist" any change in the franchise.

Radical mobs took to the streets and a public clamour f...

A new Europe must be built on the ruins of the old | Simon Jenkins

Only a redrafted constitution will revive the EU: there could be no worse end to this saga than imposition of German 'discipline'

This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a cliche. Crisis spirals out of control and Armageddon moves to the brink of abyss. "Europe" is too big to fail yet too big to succeed. Each newscast is a crash course in economics, each headline an incitement to suicide. But since we are not at war and few understand what is going on, the rest cannot believe it...

The ethical fluff of St Paul's and Rowan Williams is a liberal cop-out | Simon Jenkins

Pythonesque preaching from Church of England top brass is of no practical help in this economic mess

Bishops who start losing an argument take refuge in prayer. Others take refuge in "ethics". For weeks both have been deployed in an as yet fruitless assault on the immorality of the credit crunch and capitalism generally. No stone has been left unthrown. Editorial writers have waxed eloquent and a terrible mess has been created on the steps of St Paul's. Bland has fought bland in a media...

Great English dates No 9: 1759

As the French threatened colonies across the Atlantic and in India, the British fought back to secure the foundations of the British empire

If any date signals the foundation of the British empire, it is 1759. The seven years war of 1756-63 had begun in skirmishes with the French in America. France was expanding from Canada south down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, threatening to encircle the 13 New England colonies along the east coast. In India, the collapse of the Mogul empire enabled a F...

America's itch to brawl now has a new target – but bombs can't conquer Iran | Simon Jenkins

A post-imperial virus has infected foreign policy. We've been here before, we know the human cost, and now we must stop

This time there will be no excuses. Plans for British support for an American assault on Iran, revealed in today's Guardian, are appalling. They would risk what even the "wars of 9/11" did not bring: a Christian-Muslim armageddon engulfing the region. This time no one should say they were not warned, that minds were elsewhere, that we were told it would be swift and...

For David Cameron big bridges are sexier than real jobs | Simon Jenkins

Conservative economic policy is still spellbound by supply-side glamour, so the market has no part to play in creating growth

The worst evil economics can inflict on humans is unemployment. Not lower pay, poor working conditions, costly housing or enforced migration; just the lack of a job. To be able-bodied and out of work is debilitating to an individual and a waste to society.

Figures todayfrom the Office for National Statistics and earlier ones from the OECD and the International Labour...

Great English dates No 8: 1688 - the Glorious Revolution

The Protestant William of Orange's seizure of the throne from the Catholic James II was blatant usurpation, but it settled once and for all the conflict between crown and parliament

The 16th-century Reformation and 17th-century revolution can in retrospect seem inevitable in the story of England. Both were close-run things. Though initially Protestant, the Stuart monarchs dallied not only with Roman Catholicism but with the idea, much touted by James I, that kingship was divinely ordained and ...

EU bailout: In trying to save the euro, Germany is making demands that cannot be met | Simon Jenkins

The EU, which was mildly corrupt, is now reckless and rigid too. Whatever the question, monetary union is not the answer

It was the best of deals; it was the worst of deals. Now it is Germany waving a piece of paper declaring peace in our time. Now it is Germany taking the burden of what Angela Merkel, its leader, calls "the worst crisis since the second world war". Greece has defaulted by 50% on its debt. The afflicted banks are to be aided, and the wider eurozone is to be underpinned by a...

Great English dates No 7: 1536

Two years after Henry VIII's break with Rome, the dissolution of the monasteries changed the face and fortunes of England for ever

Henry VIII (1509-47) was the Hercules of English history. Part medieval tyrant, part renaissance prince, he discarded the ancient compromise of Norman rulers and English people. He took a nation salvaged by his father, Henry Tudor, from civil war and set over it a sovereign king, master of its civil and religious being.

In 1534, tormented by the Roman church's...