Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 151

By merely bolstering the weaker side, we are prolonging Libya's civil war | Simon Jenkins

The interventionists lack the courage of their convictions. If they really want Gaddafi gone, they should just get on with it

Welcome to 21st-century war, liberal style. You do not fix an objective and use main force to get it. You nuance words, bomb a little, half assassinate, scare, twist, spin and make it up as you go along. Nato's Libyan campaign is proving a field day for the new interventionism. Seemingly desperate to scratch another Muslim itch, Britain's laptop bombardiers and their...

Britain's universities must now declare their independence | Simon Jenkins

The student fees policy is absurd. Higher education should kick its addiction to state cash and call the coalition's bluff

As Oxford University's bigwigs and donors cheered their boat race victory from their launch last Saturday, their delight was interrupted by a blatant fundraising speech from the vice-chancellor, Andrew Hamilton. Now, surely, he said, they should donate. I hope they give not a penny until that university has found the courage to face down the government on fees and gone...

Britain has long been a poor venue for protest – Saturday won't change this | Simon Jenkins

This outdated ritual of banners, pushchairs, linked hands and incantations won't turn Trafalgar into Tahrir

Trafalgar Square is not Tahrir Square. London is not Cairo. George Osborne's budget is not the repressive one-party diktat of Hosni Mubarak's Egypt but the product of a democratic parliament. The desire of certain Labour MPs and the organisers of Saturday's anti-cuts rally to identify themselves with "recent protests in the Middle East and north Africa" is worse than silly. It dumbs...

Budget 2011: Guardian columnists' verdict | The panel

From the deficit to green issues, did George Osborne's budget deliver?

Jackie Ashley: Welfare

What a brave new world George Osborne promised for small businesses, entrepreneurs and city whizz-kids. His budget speech fizzed with new measures to reduce regulation and encourage investment – well, no one denies we need more jobs. But as he hailed "the march of the makers", "start-up Britain" and "the home of enterprise", I was reminded of that speech Neil Kinnock made back in 1983, warning of the d...

David Cameron is finding it's just as hard to carry the home front | Simon Jenkins

It took just 24 hours for the media to start talking splits and exits over Libya. Cameron's gamble looks bigger by the day

It is whiz-bang time again, deeply thoughtful whiz-bangs. The prime minister feels he needs a carefully considered kapow. It is a moment for roar, zoom, zap, shock, awe, flames, body parts, front pages, mad dogs, all in sober parliamentary moderation. The boy in the bunker has been told by the boy in the bomber that he can win. The story is the same since time immemorial. ...

The alternative vote is fine in theory. But politics is a practical business | Simon Jenkins

Until Stephen Fry and co deliver a voting system along US or French lines, I'll stick with the devil I know: first past the post

Electoral reformers, everyone knows, are quiche-eating, cardigan-wearing, sandal-flapping no-hopers. They are nerds who take 15 syllables to stammer out proportional representation by alternative vote, with most people falling asleep. Real men use first past the post.

Besides, everyone also knows that the reformers have no idea what they want. They profess to want...

Will Hutton's naive pay review won't stop the bosses' bonus racket | Simon Jenkins

Will Hutton's new strategy for top public-sector pay is flawed. Bonuses are not about performance and incentive – just greed

Ask people how much they should be paid, and experience suggests they will err on the side of generosity. Ask the same question of senior executives and generosity will be extreme. They will agonise, dig deep into their consciences, "think of the firm", grab the money and run. Query this approach and they will hire non-executive directors, remuneration committees, human ...

The hesitant saviour: how Germany bestrides Europe once again

Berlin's revival is symbolic of the country's new role as generous leader of ever-closer union

Germany was an empire, a mishmash, a dictatorship, then a shipwreck. For the two decades since reunification, it has at last been a normal country. But it is no sooner normal than it is thrust back on parade. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has emerged from the financial crash of 2008 the unchallenged impresario of the eurozone.

She rescued the currency from disaster last year and salvaged...

Those who've flunked pensions reform for 40 years can hardly complain now | Simon Jenkins

Pensions review: Lord Hutton merely reflects the widespread view that individuals should take responsibility for their families' future

Radical? This is going off the map. The Hutton report on public sector pensions continues the coalition's mass slaughter of sacred cows, beasts that have been munching stubbornly away throughout the Thatcherite era. David Cameron and his ministers know neither timidity nor caution. Already this week they have delivered two blockbusters, a report by Tom Winsor...

Politics Weekly: Liberal interventionism and British foreign policy

Colonel Gaddafi's forces appear to be gaining momentum against the rebellion in Libya prompting calls for military intervention in Europe and the United States.

With the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan still unresolved, the calls for further use of force in the Middle East is hugely controversial.

So is the best policy simply to let events run their course? Or can the doctrine of humanitarian intervention be revived?

And, as western governments re-examine their policies and connections to regimes ...