Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 18

Bravo to Prince William’s plan to end homelessness. Here’s where he should start | Simon Jenkins

The problems involved are complex, ranging from rough sleeping to the struggles of life on the murky fringes of the private sector

That the Prince of Wales wants to “end” homelessness cannot be a bad thing. Yes, it may have policy implications, but so does any act of charity. Yes, it risks mention of his own family’s gross over-supply of sleeping accommodation, but that is hardly the point. And yes, it may mean no more than his father’s practice of “bringing people round the table”. There is no h...

The SNP implosion could lead to a more independent Scotland. Here’s how | Simon Jenkins

Labour and the Tories are desperate for Scottish seats. What they offer to get them could be a gamechanger

British politics for the next year should be conducted not from Westminster but from Scotland. Since the Scottish National party leadership imploded this month, its once rock-solid support has collapsed. A recent poll suggests that the SNP’s cohort of MPs will plummet at a 2024 election from 45 to 21. The beneficiary could well be Labour, surging from one MP to 26.

Sceptics have begun casting...

If the UK is really moved by starvation in North Korea, demand an end to cruel sanctions | Simon Jenkins

UN bans aimed at transgressive regimes always hurt the poor and innocent, leaving rulers such as Kim Jong-un unscathed

This week, the BBC has been carrying reports from the world’s most authoritarian and impenetrable state. The headline: its people are starving. Communist North Korea is destitute, even as capitalist South Korea is one of Asia’s most prosperous nations. It starved in the 1950s, 1970s and 1990s, and was rescued by China. But the government closed the border during Covid and it has ...

Farewell, Boris Johnson: Britain will not miss your attempts to play Trump | Simon Jenkins

His era in power was marked by squalor and self-promotion. In the end, he proved himself afraid of parliament – and democracy

He’s gone. Again. Ducking and swerving, crashing and picking himself up, Boris Johnson is a political wrecker. He smashed David Cameron’s leadership with his mendacious Brexit campaign, and then retuned it to smash Theresa May. When he won and reached Downing Street, he made it a music-hall turn. The government was reduced to a shambles over Partygate, and was found to hav...

Banning ultra-processed food is not a nanny-state issue. It’s common sense | Simon Jenkins

Britain’s health is a national scandal, not just because of the state of the NHS, but because the government refuses to take action on our diets

In April 1994, the CEOs of the US’s seven biggest tobacco companies swore on oath before a Senate committee that nicotine was “not addictive”. At the time it was estimated that 3,000 American children were being induced by said companies to start smoking every day.

Last Monday, the BBC’s Panorama programme came close to repeating that scene with Britain’s...

Keir Starmer says he wants to empower local communities. The Jamie Driscoll affair suggests otherwise | Simon Jenkins

Blocking the North of Tyne mayor from standing for Labour again shows how deep the party’s centralism runs

It’s what they do, not what they say. All opposition leaders are localists until it matters. Keir Starmer said in January he wanted to “take back control” for local communities. The Labour leader wants them to have more say over jobs, transport, energy, climate change, housing, culture, childcare and finance. He wants to liberate what is now recognised as the most centralised state in Europe...

British universities can no longer financially depend on foreign students. They must reform to survive | Simon Jenkins

With spiralling deficits and little prospect of government support, higher education’s only long-term hope lies in radical change

Universities are becoming primary victims of the chaos enveloping Britain’s public sector. News reported in the Guardian has vice-chancellors pleading for a “new model” of government funding. This follows reports that one-third of England’s universities are trading at a deficit. Since almost one-fifth of UK students in higher education now come from abroad – 125,000 of...

A fight over Boris Johnson’s WhatsApps? The dither and delay of Britain’s Covid inquiry is a disgrace | Simon Jenkins

Sweden’s pandemic postmortem is done and dusted, yet ours seems headed for the courts before it has even begun

British politics has become a medieval battlefield across which the victors wander, seeking the twitching remains of Boris Johnson to harass and hack. The latest spat is over how much to reveal of his Downing Street behaviour during Covid. Lady Hallett, chair of the Covid inquiry, wants the unredacted WhatsApp messages between Johnson and 40 senior colleagues, along with unredacted diari...

Shredding the green belt is a recipe for disaster. We need a saner planning policy | Simon Jenkins

One of the great creations of postwar Britain is under threat from the housing crisis – it doesn’t have to be this way

Is the green belt doomed? One of the great creations of postwar British planning – the concept of a national park within reach of every city-dweller – is fast losing friends. Under siege from centralist housing targets, argued between Tories and their lobbyists, it has now been undermined by Labour’s Keir Starmer. He wants to leave decisions on building in London’s green belt to ...

Get a grip, Westminster – Suella Braverman speeding is hardly the issue of the day | Simon Jenkins

There are many reasons the home secretary may not be right for the job, but this inflated drama isn’t one of them

Trivial is the default mode of British politics. Whether or not the home secretary did ask civil servants and an aide to help her get out of a group speed-awareness course, and if she did, whether she was right to do so, is not the most urgent issue of the day. Yet, as MPs this week gathered round the Westminster village pump, it pushed immigration, the NHS, Ukraine and the G7 off the...