Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 18

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...

Loyalty has long been the Tories’ secret weapon. Without it, Sunak stands no chance | Simon Jenkins

As rebel rightwing Tories jockeyed for position this week, they tore up any remaining hopes of a Conservative election victory

I once pondered a career in politics but an elder statesman strongly advised me against it. I asked why. Because, he said, you are too interested in politics. Stick to journalism. A political career was not about politics, but about loyalty.

Never a truer word was spoken. As the tottering frame of Britain’s Tory party heads for collapse at the end of this parliament, it is...

Sunak must be firm. Ukraine’s fate will be decided by war and diplomacy – not by sanctions | Simon Jenkins

The western response has been blighted by stupidity. Sanctions hurt trade and have little effect on despotic leaders

Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s visit to London yesterday on his surprise tour of European capitals suggests a last throw of the dice in his bid to drive the Russians from his country. He has justice on his side and is desperate for logistical support. He has shown he can use it well and deserves to get it.

As he did in his meeting with Emmanuel Macron on Sunday, he is also requesting additio...

Britain is in desperate need of radical ideas. So where are Labour’s? | Simon Jenkins

Railways, water companies and the NHS are in crisis – we need bold new policies to fix them, not Keir Starmer’s timid dithering

What sort of Labour is Keir Starmer’s government now promising? Before previous elections, the party’s promise has been the same. It is the expectation of a change for the better, whether or not fulfilled.

What that means – perhaps higher taxes and a bigger state – emerges in the months leading up to voting day. That is when policy is still fluid, lobbyists insistent and ...

Our newly crowned king has made ‘service’ his brand. But whose interests will he be serving? | Simon Jenkins

From climate activists to arts bodies, every interest group will be crying out for the support of our outspoken monarch

So much for the magic, now for business. The coronation weekend reasserted Britain not as a modest, symbolic, “bicycling” monarchy of the sort adopted by many of Europe’s other hereditary kingdoms. Its royal family remains spectacular, drenched in history, religion, ritual and extravagance, an all-bells-and-whistles celebrity institution. Heredity is indefensible as a basis for ...

Richard Sharp is out at the BBC: now can we think about how we hold other miscreants to account? | Simon Jenkins

Society is making strange decisions. Some in high office lose jobs and deserve to, but we also ignore others whose sins are egregious

What have the now former chair of the BBC, the Labour veteran Diane Abbott and the ousted chancellor Nadhim Zahawi all got in common? Indeed, what do they share with Boris Johnson, Dominic Raab and Matt Hancock?

The answer is that they have all been accused of things that so upset people as to cause them to lose or risk losing their jobs. Failing to disclose having ...

Young people are wising up to the Great British student rip-off – and they're voting with their feet | Simon Jenkins

As universities wind down teaching for yet another round of exams, more and more prospective graduates are asking: why bother?

This week begins one of the worst deals offered by any British professional institution. Almost all universities are about to stop teaching students and subject them to pointless exams, mocks and quantification, before passing or failing them, then packing up and reassembling some months later in September. For an average price oftens of thousands of pounds a head (except...