Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 144

Occupy Wall Street? These protests are not Tahrir Square but scenery | Simon Jenkins

Power has slipped from democratic institutions and is ever further from the people. Insurrection, though, requires menace

Street protest "against capitalism" appears to have nowhere to go. The rioters of Athens and Madrid, the marchers of Milan and Frankfurt, the squatters of London and New York can grab a headline and illustrate a story, but then what? With no leaders, no policies, no programme beyond opposition to status quo, they must just sink into the urban background.

Travelling this...

Occupy Wall Street? These protests are not Tahrir Square but scenery

Power has slipped from democratic institutions and is ever further from the people. Insurrection, though, requires menace

Street protest "against capitalism" appears to have nowhere to go. The rioters of Athens and Madrid, the marchers of Milan and Frankfurt, the squatters of London and New York can grab a headline and illustrate a story, but then what? With no leaders, no policies, no programme beyond opposition to status quo, they must just sink into the urban background.

Travelling this...

Europe's defunct idealism is like Munich all over again | Simon Jenkins

The blindness that afflicts Europe's leaders on the euro and austerity is straight from the 1930s

Europe's financial crisis is acquiring the stench of Munich. No, it is not Nazi Germany. But it is the same ceaseless meetings and pretend deals, the same flying here and there and getting nowhere, the same refusing to acknowledge catastrophe on the horizon, hoping someone else will take a tough decision.

In 2008 the financial spotlight was on Washington. Banks were rescued, but not the American...

Great English dates No 6: 1415

Agincourt is one of the most famous battles in English history, but the victory proved short-lived and marked the begining of the end of English ambitions in France

One of the greatest of English military victories was also the most senseless. As a battle, conducted mostly by archers against mounted knights, it was sensational. As at Crécy and Poitiers, earlier in the 100 years war, English (or rather Welsh) archers out-manoeuvred the French. Bodies of hundreds of fallen men-at-arms formed a r...

Why fiddle with our clocks? This ritual persecution of the sleepless must end | Simon Jenkins

The return from summer time to gloomy GMT owes nothing to nature and all to the Scots. Let us down south enjoy a little light

I usually wake at 5.30, which is earlier than I like but gives me two uninterrupted hours of work before the day begins. However, at the end of the month the government will make me wake at 4.30, which I find miserably early. Then, when I have grown used to treating 4.30 as 5.30, the government will next April tell me to wake at 6.30. This is crazy. If lighter evenings ...

Only England fails to foresee the demise of its first empire | Simon Jenkins

Scotland's 'devo max' is no rerun of Bannockburn: but Cameron responds like London's ignorant governing elite always has

Federations collapse from the stupidity of their leaders rather than the bolshevism of their members. The United Kingdom is no exception. It was pieced together in the 18th century from the half of the British Isles that the Normans had failed to conquer and assimilate. It began to disintegrate when the Irish had had enough of inept English government. Now the Scots are...

Great English dates No 5: 1265

Simon de Montfort's parliament may have been short-lived, but it gave birth to an institution made up of lords and commoners

When John died, the crown passed to the last person it needed, nine-year-old Henry III. His guardian, William Marshal, gathered a council that patched together the state left by John. Magna Carta was restored, as were the assize courts and the revenue. But as Henry grew to be a man, he could not be restrained from seeking to recoup the family possessions in France. This ...

Vanity, machismo and greed have blinded us to the folly of Afghanistan | Simon Jenkins

The decade-long retribution exacted on this nation has cost the west dearly – and our old foes laugh at our expense

Ten years of western occupation of Afghanistan led the UN this week to plead that half the country's drought-ridden provinces face winter starvation. The World Food Programme calls for £92m to be urgently dispatched. This is incredible. Afghanistan is the world's greatest recipient of aid, some $20bn in the past decade, plus a hundred times more in military spending. So much...

Stop the gimmicks, Cameron – start learning from Thatcher | Simon Jenkins

David Cameron is looking flaky. He should realise that Margaret Thatcher based her ascendancy on a ruthless attention to detail

David Cameron is still the Tories' best leader since Margaret Thatcher. Just. He has proved an adept handler of coalition. He has a keen sense of political timing and a relaxed command of the public stage. With Britain's economic predicament ever more dire, his pragmatism is a national asset, and puts him head and shoulders above most European leaders.

Yet can he turn ...

Great English dates: 1215

The 61-clause Magna Carta came about during the weak rule of King John and lies at the foundation of England's civil rights

The offspring of William the Conqueror solidified the Norman hold on England. Henry I and Henry II, did so by their mastery of war, administration and the law. Richard I and King John did so by absence and incompetence, empowering the rival bases of the church and barons. By the start of the 13th century, John's failings had stirred civil war and had him scurrying...