Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 19

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...

Michael Gove’s housing reforms are the only ray of light in this doomed government | Simon Jenkins

Instead of caving in to the building lobby, he is trying to return power to the people about the future of their communities

As the present Tory administration staggers on, one minister at least is showing some terminal creativity. The levelling up, housing and communities secretary, Michael Gove, is galvanising housing policy, sort of. This year, he has at last abandoned the absurdity that there is a national housing need of a fixed number of houses a year.

Councils in England have been told they...

Sunak needn’t worry – maths mania already has our schools in a stranglehold | Simon Jenkins

The obsession with a subject most people don’t need to study until they are 18 is typical of a system that fails to equip pupils for modern life

Rishi Sunak is clearly gripped by maths. Today’s attack on what he sees as Britain’s “anti-maths mindset” is his second this year. The prime minister wants to embarrass all innumerates and make not being good at maths socially unacceptable. Lack of maths, he says, is costing the country “tens of billions a year”. So he wants students in England to study ...

Sturgeonism is dead but the independence cause is not. Westminster beware | Simon Jenkins

Despite the troubles facing the SNP, a revolution would be needed to remove it from power. Its core demand still stirs so many hearts

There is palpable glee in Westminster at the current predicament of the Scottish National party – with Nicola Sturgeon’s husband, Peter Murrell, the party’s former chief executive, arrested last week, but released without charge pending further inquiries, as part of an investigation into SNP finances. But the unionist joy is misplaced.

Even without a resolution, and...

The decline of churchgoing doesn’t have to mean the decline of churches – they can help us level up | Simon Jenkins

Lockdown accelerated an existing trend. We need to reconnect the use of these buildings to the communities around them

For Christian worship in England, the Covid-19 lockdowns were a disaster. All churches were forced to close by the government. Where office working and high-street shopping led, Christianity followed. It stayed at home. Recently published research suggests that fully a quarter of Anglican churches are no longer holding weekly services. Five, 10, even 20 parish churches are being...

Prosecuting Donald Trump is right. But is it politically wise? | Simon Jenkins

Many voters back the ex-president despite – or perhaps because of – his alleged crimes. A trial might only entrench that support

The best reason for arraigning Donald Trump in New York this week is that he is guilty. It is possible that the jury might agree and he might go quietly to jail, thus being unable to return to the White House were he to be elected. That is a good reason, but it does not make it a wise one.

American justice is not political but it can be highly politicised. We won’t know ...

Prince Harry has every right to take on the Daily Mail. But is phone hacking yesterday’s problem? | Simon Jenkins

It was a scourge in the 90s and 00s. Now, though, what we need is new privacy laws to regulate the excesses of social media

Never did a stranger Magnificent Seven ride into town. It includes a royal prince, an ageing pop star, two B-movie film stars and a former Lib Dem MP. All were chosen as wounded heroes by the champions of privacy against the mighty Daily Mail. Heaven knows what this grievance-fest is costing but someone can afford it.

We all know tabloid newspapers in the 1990s and 2000s coul...

A tragic accident should not have landed Auriol Grey in prison. The UK justice system is stuck in the dark ages | Simon Jenkins

The UK’s obsession with jail time is counterproductive and cruel. There are better ways to deal with wrongdoing

Auriol Grey, who has cerebral palsy and lives in specially adapted accommodation, was walking along a footpath in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, and was infuriated to see a bicycle coming towards her. She waved her arm at it, making the 77-year-old rider swerve, lose her balance and fall into the road, where she was hit by a passing car and died. An act of what might be called antisocial b...

A tragic accident should not have landed Auriol Grey in prison. Our justice system is stuck in the dark ages | Simon Jenkins

The UK’s obsession with jail time is counterproductive and cruel. There are better ways to deal with wrongdoing

Auriol Grey, who has cerebral palsy and lives in specially adapted accommodation, was walking along a footpath in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, and was infuriated to see a bicycle coming towards her. She waved her arm at it, making the 77-year-old rider swerve, lose her balance and fall into the road, where she was hit by a passing car and died. An act of what might be called antisocial b...

The people of Northern Ireland want their assembly back. The DUP must not be allowed to block that | Simon Jenkins

A health and cost of living crisis is causing real problems that must be addressed. Democracy cannot be hamstrung any longer

Nothing in Boris Johnson’s post-Downing Street antics has been more cynical than his dodging from the privileges committee hearing on Wednesday to vote against Rishi Sunak’s Windsor framework. That reform was a hard-won attempt to rescue and reorder Johnson’s own hard-Brexit shambles. The least he could do was say thank you and shut up.

Fleeing to Northern Ireland’s extremis...