Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 150

David Cameron's smooth image is not all caricature - he has a right to be cocky | Simon Jenkins

Over the past year Cameron has emerged as a leader of real ability with a talent for luck. Libya aside, it can't get much better

If I were David Cameron I would stop now. It cannot get much better. The polls are up. The Telegraph and the Mail love him. He seems immune to bad news on the economy. At the end of his first year of office he has emerged as an adept political operator with a talent for luck. For all the dud trees in his coalition – two more sprouted this week on police and...

It is time for England's first empire to get independence | Simon Jenkins

In a fit of Anglo-Saxon machismo, Cameron has vowed to fight Scottish self-rule 'with every fibre I have'. But why?

Last week David Cameron reacted to the election of the first Scots nationalist majority government by saying he would "campaign to keep our United Kingdom together with every single fibre I have". Dare we ask why? Cameron has no political interest in Scotland, where the Tories have had just one MP in 20 years. He would have a strong Tory majority at Westminster were it not for...

Osama bin Laden is dead – but not al-Qaida or its cause | Simon Jenkins

Ten years of 'war on terror' have devastated Afghanistan. All its people want is peace. Will they get it at last?

We shed no tears for Osama bin Laden. The most outrageous act of terrorism in modern times has led to the most gigantic manhunt and most costly tit-for-tat war. America's joy, as much of relief as of delight, is understandable. But the thesis must now be put to the test, whether an idea is more potent when its creator has died for it than when he was alive. Killing Bin Laden...

This royal wedding cannot bear the weight of meaning that's being heaped on it | Simon Jenkins

Dress, hair, coach and cake will tell us nothing about monarchy, class or modern Britain. Just relax and enjoy the fun

Relax. It is not important. The dress is not important. The bouquet is not important. Whether the hair is up or down is not important. The guest list is fine but for some silly hitches. The royal wedding tells us nothing about the state of the monarchy, the fate of the government, the class system, or the habits and morals of the young. Its global fascination lies in its...

There's no such thing as 'big society' – just many small ones, under steeples | Simon Jenkins

Churches are the obvious place for revived localism yet their potential remains locked behind regulatory clutter and spiralling costs

The "big society" will be on annual parade this Sunday. Uncomfortable though it is to atheists, Christianity is still the largest affinity group in Britain, with probably four million attending services in 47,000 buildings that pass as churches. We cannot ask why, be it faith, habit, a desire for comradeship or Britain's extraordinary tradition of granting...

These humanitarians come to Libya with missiles, and an agenda | Simon Jenkins

Rather than protecting Libyans Nato is prolonging the agony of civil war. David Cameron should think on Suez and retreat

To creep or not to creep, that is the question. Britain's Libyan war is entering its most dangerous phase. The great lie has once again been rumbled, that air power can deliver any sort of victory. The humanitarian imperative is in full cry, swamping the media and blinding strategy with daily tales of horror from the front. The mission, confused from the start, is moving...

This cult of the ruin renders England's landscape soulless. Better to rebuild | Simon Jenkins

New tomes and TV shows exult in our wrecked castles and abbeys. Why do we not bring them back to useful life?

A bad omen is at hand. The cult of the ruin is back. I mean not just the return of such modern "ruins" as the Great Depression, Liberal coalitions or royal weddings, but ancient ones too. Television is furiously walking, digging and rescuing relics of the past. The British Museum recalls the venues of wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and, perhaps, whatever the RAF leaves standing of Libya...

My advice for the happiness lobby? Start with drugs | Simon Jenkins

It's a quest that has taxed the likes of Billy Graham and the Dalai Lama. The answer's in local politics and narcotics legislation

Yes, folks, happiness days are here again, again. A new campaign called Action for Happiness was launched on Tuesday. It was also launched, I distinctly recall, back in January, and often before by such luminaries as David Cameron, the Dalai Lama, Billy Graham, Dale Carnegie and Aristotle. You can ridicule happiness, bash it on the head, stamp it under foot, but...

Nick Clegg, you chose to be coalition arm-candy, so accept being a punchbag | Simon Jenkins

Instead of bewailing his lot, Nick Clegg should sniff the daffodils and be grateful he missed the golden era of political venom

Oh dear. Nick Clegg has had another Shylock moment, bewailing his lot to the New Statesman. Has a Lib Dem not hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? "If you prick us," he wails, "do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?"

The short answer is no, not if you are a minority leader in a coalition. Then you are...

Social immobility is built into the way Britain lives and learns | Simon Jenkins

No industry, no jobs, no incentive – the idea that Nick Clegg's internships will change the towns I visited last week is laughable

If David Cameron and Nick Clegg are really worried about social mobility they would not have raised VAT. The greatest aid to social mobility is money. The greatest redistributor of money is growth. The greatest curb on growth is restricted demand. The coalition "social mobility strategy" reminded me of the entire Congolese army being promoted one rank to make it...