Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 30

Biden is a diplomatic liability. He’s playing into Putin’s hands | Simon Jenkins

Zelenskiy is a master of mobilising his nation’s defence. But his plight must not become a plaything of western politics

An iron maxim of war is to imagine what your enemy most wants you to do, and not to do it. Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is floundering. He has lied to the Russian people to justify it. He has told them it is not Ukraine but Nato and the west that seek their defeat and his overthrow. That is why they must support him in his fight. To a large extent they have done so.

Nat...

Two years ago I said I was taking Covid ‘with a pinch of salt’ – perhaps I was wrong | Simon Jenkins

March 2020 was a nightmare month in the game of prediction. But I stand firm that some of my scepticism about the UK’s pandemic response may be borne out

Scientists must long to travel back two years and revisit their Covid predictions. So too must commentators who relied on them. That March of 2020 was a nightmare month for the great game of prediction.

Boris Johnson’s press conference on 3 March was a cautious occasion. He had just received wild reports from Whitehall’s scaremongers declaring th...

Beware, Boris Johnson: in war, drawing historical parallels is a dangerous game | Simon Jenkins

As enticing as comparisons with the past can be, it’s geography that holds the key to understanding the war in Ukraine

No, the war in Ukraine is not like Brexit. No, the Russians are not Nazis, nor are the Ukrainians. No, Boris Johnson is not Churchill or Pericles, and the third world war has not begun, unless we choose to begin it. Such comparisons are odious. As a guide to the present, let alone the future, history is for smart alecks and podcasts. It is bunk.

The only quarrel I have with Ukrain...

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s ordeal shows the uselessness of economic sanctions | Simon Jenkins

This vacuous foreign policy weapon exacts a human price while failing to achieve any objective

Joy at the release of two Britons from an Iranian jail should not conceal the squalid diplomacy revealed by their ordeal. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori have been victims of the latest weapon of western coercion, on display in all its impotence.

The essence of the case isn’t disputed. Britain owed Iran £400m for undelivered military equipment. Britain found the Tehran regime distasteful. ...

Opposition to Putin must not lead the UK to appease equally repellent dictators | Simon Jenkins

The war in Ukraine is showing up the inconsistency and moral sloppiness of how Britain deals with regimes

War is a good time to bury scruples. We may hate Vladimir Putin, but one dictator at a time appears all we can handle. So Britain’s Boris Johnson is to make a humiliating dash to plead with Saudi Arabia’s ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to lower the price of oil. What will he offer in return? Will it be a blind eye to the state murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the continued de...

Britain’s economic war against Putin is a mess – and it may be pointless | Simon Jenkins

Ordinary people are likely to feel the pain, and none of the oligarchs directly targeted can influence Russia’s tyrant anyway

Boris Johnson is getting serious about Ukraine. He may not admit many Ukrainian refugees lest they endanger the Conservatives’ claim to being the party of low migration. But he is slamming sanctions on seven more London oligarchs, including Roman Abramovich, Igor Sechin and Oleg Deripaska. The high-profile trio, with four other oligarchs, are eerily accused of “enabling th...

Ukrainian refugees, meet Britain’s ‘hostile environment’. We should be ashamed | Simon Jenkins

You could hardly imagine a frostier welcome for these desperate people. The comparison with Europe tells you everything

One and a half million desperate Ukrainian refugees. Fifty British visas. It beggars belief.

In time of war we should keep emotional responses in proportion, but sometimes the hypocrisy is intolerable. Boris Johnson is frantically – and blatantly – traipsing his Churchill act through the capitals of Europe. He hurls abuse at Vladimir Putin and promises Ukraine guns and missiles, ...

Cleaning London of dirty Russian money would be great – but won’t topple Putin | Simon Jenkins

The UK government is directing its impotent fury at the oligarchs it has courted for 20 years. It will achieve little

We yearn to help. Wrong must be put right. Something must be done. The agony was plain on Boris Johnson’s face as a Ukrainian berated him for refusing to impose a no-fly zone on Russia. When an outrage is being perpetrated and untold numbers of people are dying hourly on our screens, impotence is misery. So we loudly voice our support of Ukraine. We hate Vladimir Putin, hate oliga...

Sanctions don’t work – serious diplomacy is the only way to stop Putin | Simon Jenkins

When the fighting stops, Britain must help Russia and Ukraine live as neighbours again

We now know that Ukrainians mean to fight the Russian invasion with determination and bravery. In that fight they must have support. We cannot fail to admire fellow Europeans as they take up weapons to defend their country against meaningless aggression.

But what does support mean? The British government disagrees with many Ukrainians that it shares the same threat and should join the same fight. With Vladimir P...

Who can prevail on Putin now war in Ukraine has started? Peace depends on it | Simon Jenkins

The Russian leader listens to China’s Xi Jinping and a circle of rich cronies. Only they may be able to prevent huge bloodshed

All Europe must have awoken this morning and heard the news with horror. Sometimes history refuses to die. The fate of 44 million Ukrainians at the mercy of Russia and its vast army is appalling to contemplate. Indeed, so wild and mendacious are the utterances of Vladimir Putin in the past 24 hours that they suggest a dictator deranged and out of control. It is precisely ...