Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 153

The west's itch to meddle is no help. Leave Egypt alone | Simon Jenkins

Our sole contribution to Muslim states wrestling with self-determination is plunging their neighbours into bloodbath and chaos

We are hypocrites. We cheer on the brave Tunisians and Egyptians as they assert the revolutionary power of the street. Hands off, we cry. Let them do it their way. It has taken a long time, but let the people get the credit and be strengthened thereby.

We gave no such licence to the Iraqis or Afghans. We presumed it was our job to dictate how they should be governed...

As secrecy and privacy become things of the past, media ethics are in a mess | Simon Jenkins

A journalist's job is to get the story, but electronic surveillance and the internet demand a new map of the boundaries

Shock disclosure – journalists sometimes behave unethically. The reptiles behave like reptiles. As they slither round the swamp, they even run out of prey, and are now consuming their own, the News of the World. Their victims are delighted. Bruised MPs jump with joy. Starlets pout. Over-sexed footballers are ecstatic. Bankers roll on the floor and kick their legs in the air. ...

Our protection from banks? A pile of ordure called Merlin | Simon Jenkins

If half the cash showered on these casinos had gone to the high street, the economy wouldn't be in such double-dip straits

It walks like double-dip, talks like double-dip, quacks like double-dip. What else are the latest figures on Britain's economic growth? The gamble recent governments have taken in bailing out banks instead of their customers to heal recession is looking ever more reckless. The VAT rise this month was foolish. The cuts in public spending, though vital to curb a public...

Gove, like Stalin, wants to tell us what history to study. Well, let me tell him | Simon Jenkins

From Canute to Thatcher, Britain is rich in stories of wisdom and folly. If only politicians could learn from others' mistakes

Michael Gove is fed up with the teaching of history. He wants it to be less fictish and more factish. At present he claims British history in schools has the wrong dates, the wrong heroes and hence, I am sure, the wrong lessons drawn. He does not care how history is taught, only what history is taught. I am sure Stalin felt the same. It is the great Govian paradox, a d...

Like all inquiries, Chilcot is a pageant, too late to matter | Simon Jenkins

These surrogate courts of law should be crisp, swift and certain. Instead they slowly ensure none spill any establishment blood

Did the earth move? Did your coffee cup shake and your corn flakes fly across the room? "Blair misled MPs on Iraq, says Goldsmith", screamed the headline. "PM shut me out of crucial discussions, says Goldsmith". Great heavens, the Chilcot inquiry is back from the realm of the undead, singing its ghostly chorus through Westminster. On Friday Tony Blair returns like...

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 ...