Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 31

Lying didn’t work for Boris Johnson, so now he’s turned to bribery | Simon Jenkins

The prime minister’s response to ‘partygate’ is a wild orgy of populist policies to keep up the pretence he’s still in charge

For the past fortnight Sue Gray’s report on “partygate” has been hovering over Downing Street like a huge vulture, seeking only somewhere to land. A redacted version is expected imminently. In the meantime, Boris Johnson is panicking. For partygate he has substituted policygate, a wild orgy of populist pronouncements designed to show he is still in charge. If Johnson canno...

Even Johnson's own fraud minister couldn't bear the stink of this government | Simon Jenkins

With £5bn lost to fraudulent Covid loan claims, Lord Agnew did a rare thing for a minister in 2022: he told the truth and quit

Theodore Agnew was the model of a modern Tory oligarch. A successful businessman, he made enough to dabble in the new politics. He did all the right things. He backed a chain of academy schools and joined a Conservative thinktank, Policy Exchange. He donated a dutiful £134,000 to the Tory party between 2007 and 2009. Part-owner of an AI consultancy called Faculty, Agnew s...

A measure of autonomy in eastern Ukraine is the only way out of this crisis | Simon Jenkins

Nato’s treatment of Russia almost guaranteed a chauvinistic reflex. The way forward is to implement the Minsk settlement

The movement of troops round the Ukrainian border now clearly heralds a crisis. Russia’s level of provocation is grotesque, but nothing on the ground poses any strategic threat to Britain or any other western government, or even to Europe’s security as a whole.

Ukraine’s relations with Russia have been fraught since the toppling of the pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych in ...

Britain should stay well out of Russia’s border dispute with Ukraine | Simon Jenkins

Johnson won’t save his skin by threats of war with another ailing populist, and Putin will not be stopped by the west

Nothing in politics is as dangerous as a populist in trouble – unless it is two populists in trouble. Today we have Britain’s Boris Johnson and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, both with plunging popularity ratings and both desperately in need of a distraction. There is no distraction as enticing as war.

War across Ukraine’s conflict-ridden Donbas region is now said by western strategists ...

After the Prince Andrew scandal, it's time to slim down the monarchy | Simon Jenkins

Royal offspring are accidents waiting to happen. Far better to cut down the throne to an heir and a spare

The royal family is engaged in frantic damage limitation ahead of the Queen’s platinum jubilee this summer. The Duke of York’s court case, which could turn out to be a high-octane festival of royal humiliation, risks contaminating the celebrations. This should have nothing to do with Britain’s monarchy, except that it has everything to do with it. The essence of monarchy is its image; right n...

No wonder deceit is dragging Boris Johnson under – he’s not even a good liar | Simon Jenkins

The prime minister is belatedly learning that a few jokes cannot distract from a catalogue of ego-driven mendacity

He lied. He clearly lied. But so what? As Boris Johnson hangs on by his fingertips, we wait to see who will stamp on them. The answer is presumably Sue Gray, to whose final mercies he has desperately handed his fate. Surely nothing she says can rescue him. At question is not his guilt, only his punishment.

Johnson can plead that he was “advised” that office parties were within the rul...

Novak Djokovic's case is about Australia's flawed border practices, not vaccines | Simon Jenkins

The tennis player may be unjabbed, but he did what was asked of him to access the country

There is so far only one lesson in the “acquittal” of the tennis player Novak Djokovic on a charge of seeking to enter Australia unvaccinated. It is that something is badly wrong with that country’s border controls.

The judge found that the tennis star had met all reasonable requirements for admission, as was conceded by the Canberra government. He had two separate permits for exemption from vaccination, one ...

'Sir Tony Blair'? How cheaply knighthoods come in our broken honours system | Simon Jenkins

Bestowing an award on the former prime minister simply because he once did a job shows how urgently we need reform

So, Anthony Charles Lynton “call me Tony” Blair must now be called Sir Tony. In addition to being “Right Honourable” he is to be the Queen’s Companion, chivalrous and knightly. He is to wear a royal garter, the highest honour the monarch can bestow, and it is her personal decision. Gasps all round. A petition of protest has received almost 700,000 signatures already.

On paper the reas...

Here’s what a Tory donor and a lavish Liz Truss lunch in Mayfair tells us about British politics | Simon Jenkins

The latest revelations highlight the casual way powerful relationships and public funds intertwine

A woman must lunch somewhere. When the prime minister told Liz Truss to examine every road post Brexit, her thoughts naturally turned to Mayfair and Hertford Street. Perhaps that nice caff at No 5. We are after all lunching with that nice American trade envoy, Katherine Tai. Perhaps two measures of dry gin; two bottles of Pazo Barrantes Albariño, a Spanish white wine, costing a total of £153; and t...

Churches could double as banks, or even serve beer. We can’t leave them empty | Simon Jenkins

These mainly listed buildings sit at the heart of almost every community – we are squandering a precious legacy

For the first time, possibly in a millennium, fewer than half of all Britons call themselves Christian. This month’s updating of the 2011 census suggests the latest figure is down from 60% to 51%, with predictions that next year it will be in the 40s. No one yet knows what the pandemic has done to religious faith, but the trend across the western world is the same. At least in wealthier...