Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 153

Free speech can't exist unchained. US politics needs the tonic of order | Simon Jenkins

If America is to speak in a way that heals, as Obama wishes, it needs the curbs and regulations that make freedom of expression real

The ugly American is back. Can the handsome one do anything about it? When Barack Obama addressed a shocked nation in Tuscon, Arizona, yesterday, he deployed the only weapon left to a crippled presidency: the power of rhetorical cliche. He deployed it brilliantly.

"Together we thrive," he cried meaninglessly. "For all our imperfections, we are full of decency and ...

The state's pedlars of fear must be brought to account | Simon Jenkins

Why have a private firm run police to spy on a few greens? The Ratcliffe Six case is a warning story of securocrats out of control

So "Mark Stone" was not acting alone. The most extraordinary feature of the police penetration of the green movement was the alleged presence of a woman constable, "and others … lots of others." I looked again at the picture of the Ratcliffe Six, who appeared to be "greens" from central casting. It recalled Chesterton's satire on the early Met police special...

Excalibur's castles built from postwar dreams must not be demolished | Simon Jenkins

The Excalibur prefab estate in south London may be scruffy, but it's a precious chapter in the nation's story worth preserving

As history, south London's Catford lacks pzazz. It has none of the raw brutalism of its neighbour, Lewisham, or the old world charm of Peckham. Sandwiched between Hither Green cemetery and the Ravensbourne ditch, it is one long aesthetic groan. But it nurtures in its bosom the largest surviving 1940s prefab estate in Britain, admirably named Excalibur. Lewisham...

Save the economy? No, VAT's pandering to the powerful | Simon Jenkins

George Osborne's VAT rise illustrates an unbending truth of politics: it's easier to raise £13bn from the poor than upset VIPs

Today's rise in VAT, according to the chancellor, George Osborne, is the shortest route to economic salvation. According to Labour, it is a dangerous, indeed reckless, curb on demand, "the wrong tax at the wrong time." Which is right? Since I agree with the government in attacking the monster deficit, I hesitate to agree with the reprobates who created it. But I do.

The...

This glorious winter weather | Simon Jenkins

Snowy slopes, blue skies. Ignore what you read in the papers – most people are having a lovely break

The world is mad. Most Britons have, like me, just enjoyed the most glorious weather of the year. The western shores of the British Isles have seen a week of almost continuous sun, open horizons and star-filled nights. Freezing air has kept the early snow from melting. With brief exceptions, main roads have been open and supplies plentiful. An exquisite Christmas beckons, with snowy slopes and ...

This localism bill shows Eric Pickles is Hazel Blears in super-sized wolf's clothing | Simon Jenkins

Like his predecessors, communities secretary Eric Pickles set out on the road to localism but has swerved off into the fudge factory

The big society is dead. Long live the small one. Big is bad, and anyway it was just a politician's cliche, glitter to dress the stage for a passing election back in early 2010. What matters is power, power and its distribution. That is the theme with variations of the coalition's most important constitutional measure so far, this week's localism bill published...

In this World Cup sewer, we reptiles of British journalism hold our heads high | Simon Jenkins

Let Fifa's murk be cleared. As WikiLeaks has shown, disclosure is all we have when audit is polluted and politicians are cowed

The grovelling of the prime minister and the second in line to the throne before Fifa's Zurich racket has been a national humiliation. Had they no intelligence of what was going on? Had this exposure to ridicule not been risk-assessed? Even a cursory glance at the allegations from the Sunday Times and the BBC's Panorama would have warned Downing Street and the Palace t...

US embassy cables: The job of the media is not to protect the powerful from embarrassment | Simon Jenkins

It is for governments – not journalists – to guard public secrets, and there is no national jeopardy in WikiLeaks' revelations

Is it justified? Should a newspaper disclose virtually all a nation's secret diplomatic communication, illegally downloaded by one of its citizens? The reporting in the Guardian of the first of a selection of 250,000 US state department cables marks a recasting of modern diplomacy. Clearly, there is no longer such a thing as a safe electronic archive, whatever...

Napoleon Gove can dictate its terms but the school curriculum is bogus | Simon Jenkins

Like his predecessors, the education secretary must fiddle. Yet his list will mean just as little for life beyond the school gate

Nothing appeals to a politician so much as the chance to rewrite a curriculum. He would not dare operate on a brain tumour or land a jumbo jet or design the Forth Bridge. But let him near a classroom, and the Jupiter complex takes over. He goes berserk. Any fool can teach, and the existing fools are no good at it. Napoleon might lose the battle of Waterloo, but he r...