Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 146

Let's find progressive ways to tax the winners in our trickle-up econom | Simon Jenkins

Blaming Britain's lack of growth on the taxation of high earners is nonsense – and totally out of step with the rest of the world

I know very few rich people who got rich to make money. They got rich because, other than spivs and gamblers, they enjoyed their work and were good at it. How much they made might be due to competition, greed, love, prestige, personal rivalry or, as JK Galbraith said of senior executives, a "warm personal gesture by an individual to himself". But there is no...

Let's find progressive ways to tax the winners in our trickle-up economy | Simon Jenkins

Blaming Britain's lack of growth on the taxation of high earners is nonsense – and totally out of step with the rest of the world

I know very few rich people who got rich to make money. They got rich because, other than spivs and gamblers, they enjoyed their work and were good at it. How much they made might be due to competition, greed, love, prestige, personal rivalry or, as JK Galbraith said of senior executives, a "warm personal gesture by an individual to himself". But there is no...

Economic growth follows demand, so give people cash to spend | Simon Jenkins

The chancellor's gamble hasn't paid off. An urgent shift in priorities is now needed if Britain isn't to slip back into recession

Forget "It's the economy, stupid." Switch to "It's demand, stupid." If the 20th-century revolution in economics meant anything, it was that unless people go out and buy things, there will be no jobs, no incomes, no growth. Governments can worry about borrowing, lending, inflation, fiscal rectitude, whatever until the cows come home – but without demand there is...

What impact did 9/11 have on the world? | The panel

Our panel assesses the decade of international upheaval that followed the al-Qaida attacks on the US

Simon Jenkins: 'The response to 9/11 was as Bin Laden must have dreamed'

No single figure since the second world war has made so profound an impact on world events as Osama bin Laden. Had the world responded to his 9/11 attack on America with moderation he would probably have disappeared, expelled from Afghanistan or killed by his Tajik enemies. Even the Taliban were known to have been shocked b...

English history: why we need to understand 1066 and all that

History is more than just isolated moments. Only with a knowledge of the complete evolution of English politics, argues Simon Jenkins, can we address the problems facing today's society

Which "bits" of English history do we need to know? Should they be Simon Schama's peasants' revolt, Indian empire and opium wars, or David Starkey's rules of chivalry? Or is the Cambridge professor Richard Evans right to dismiss "rote learning of the national patriotic narrative" out of hand, in favour of...

If Britain fails to protect its heritage we'll have nothing left but ghosts | Simon Jenkins

The Welsh mining settlement of Dylife once thrived but now it lies forgotten, like so much of our industrial past

Fling off the cares of the world this autumn and climb up from the tidy mid-Welsh town of Llanidloes, north over the mountain road towards Machynlleth. Near a wild summit you enter a moonscape of old mineral workings and slag heaps. Here metals were mined in Roman times, and here the Victorians erected reputedly the largest wheel in Britain, the Martha pump, to serve what by the...

The maths of coalition has opened the door to lobbyists | Simon Jenkins

Policymakers have rarely been so vulnerable to the blandishments of vested interests like the anti-abortion lobby

Why is abortion back on the political agenda? Surely after decades of debate and reform, a system that has worked tolerably well for half a century might be left in peace. Not so. Under proposals coming to the Commons next week, women seeking an abortion would first need compulsory "counselling" from an agency independent of an abortion clinic. Such counselling is at present...

Libya is not an advertisement for intervention | Simon Jenkins

Several claims have been made about Nato's involvement in Libya that have little basis in reality

Nato – chiefly Britain – appears to have toppled the Gaddafi regime in Libya to "liberate" its people. The days are over where the mere triumph of arms justifies itself. The rightness of a war and the honesty of its methods are vital if the new "liberal interventionism" is to carry its proclaimed moral clout. The Libyan operation is already being declared a classic success for the ideology. The...

The end of Gaddafi is welcome. But it does not justify the means | Simon Jenkins

We may all applaud Gaddafi's downfall, but it remains the case that Britain's intervention in Libya was wrong

• Mohamed Salem: Libya is no Iraq – this revolution is real

The downfall of a dictator is always welcome. Especially welcome is the downfall of Gaddafi of Libya. He was not the worst of his genre, but for 42 years was the beneficiary of the crassest western intervention, veering between ineffective sanctions and ostracism and Tony Blair's cringing, oil-drenched "friendship". More...

UK riots: In this crisis, our cities need local leaders with real power | Simon Jenkins

The vacuum of authority below our centralised state leaves the police with the impossible task of keeping order alone

Outsiders witnessing the urban riots this week could be forgiven for assuming that Britain's cities were now run by the police and the home secretary. There may be municipal councils and in London an elected mayor, but they are nowhere to be seen to be in control. They have no real power and therefore little or no public status as civic leaders. At the front line are the...