Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 4

Keir Starmer is having his chainsaw moment – but all he will slash is democracy | Simon Jenkins

The PM sounds like Elon Musk when promising to fight the ‘blockers’, but his government’s plans will weaken the link between peoples and politics

Every new prime minister has an Elon Musk moment. A sudden attack of frustration leads to a burst of machismo, a chainsaw response. The system stinks. Slash the bureaucrats. Smash the machine.

Thatcher had her “subversives”, Tony Blair his “scars on my back”, David Cameron his “enemies of enterprise”. Now Sir Keir Starmer claims to be haunted by the bloc...

When the horror stops, the key to peace in Gaza and Ukraine will be how power is shared | Simon Jenkins

Constitution-building offers no headlines – but what it can do, history tells us, is stop hundreds of thousands of people dying

Syria is reportedly sliding back towards civil war, as its various factions demand devolved authority. It is at root the same issue, that of local autonomy, that led to regional unrest in Ukraine and splintered leadership in Palestine. It underlies the devastating conflicts in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. All these places are flush with guns, allies an...

Putin is not Hitler. His actions in Ukraine are horrific enough to need no exaggeration | Simon Jenkins

Keir Starmer has said we face the greatest threat to our national security since the cold war. Such hyperbole helps nobody

Is Vladimir Putin another Adolf Hitler? The western world seems to think so. In which case is Donald Trump another Neville Chamberlain and Ukraine another Czechoslovakia? Is history bunk, or is it a wise old man leaning on the gate as Europe storms into its latest crisis?

Godwin’s law holds that the longer a political argument continues, the nearer it gets to Hitler. This redu...

No matter how distasteful we find Trump and Vance over Europe, they speak a blunt truth | Simon Jenkins

The US has chosen the worst possible moment and the worst possible way to say it, but it is right to call for a realignment

It’s tough being rightwing these days. You have to find something nice to say about Donald Trump. That is hard. He thinks Kyiv started the Ukraine war and its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is a “dictator”. But what about JD Vance? The US vice-president thinks that Europe’s “threat from within”, which is putting “free speech … in retreat”, is worse than any threat from Russ...

Even Prince William doesn’t attend church – it’s time for a new Reformation | Simon Jenkins

The UK is now a secular nation and the Church of England should no longer be one of the central pillars of state

The national church “of England” has been meeting this week in London and is in turmoil. Does it matter, other than to the 1.7% of the population of England who still worship under its roofs? Since the Church of England continues with an “established” role in the life of the nation, the answer is yes.

The argument within the C of E over safeguarding seems endless. It has brought the dow...

If Trump really cared about his ‘favourite’ US president, he would leave Gaza and Greenland alone | Simon Jenkins

He eulogises the 25th incumbent, William McKinley, but on tariffs and imperialism, Trump is learning the wrong lessons

Donald Trump’s favourite US president was William McKinley. Who he? In his inaugural address, Trump pledged to restore the name Mount McKinley to North America’s highest peak. It was an anti-woke dig at Barack Obama, who had given it the Alaskan native name of Denali. But why this idolatry?

The answer has since become clear. McKinley was the president (1897-1901) who introduced su...

It's clear Britain can't survive without immigration. Now Labour must convince voters | Simon Jenkins

Yet more evidence shows that we will only rely on it more as time goes on. It’s time to debate it without toxic rhetoric

Britain needs immigrants. According to the Office for National Statistics this week, Britain’s “indigenous” population in the 2030s will be static and ageing. Growth in population will be buoyed only by immigrants, their number predicted to rise by 5 million over the next seven years. Thank goodness, surely, for them.

As this debate lurches back into public discourse, it is curs...

Starmer wants the economy to grow, baby, grow. Woe betide the ‘blockers’ who get in his way | Simon Jenkins

By sweeping aside everyone from local planners to defenders of the green belt, Labour is handing a gift to Reform UK

Donald Trump’s macho populism is catching on. The prime minister, Keir Starmer, has caught it bad. His mission for the economy is to grow, baby, grow. His abuse of his perceived enemies is relentless. He doles out not so much policies as Labour passion projects: Heathrow expansion, onshore wind turbines and Ed Miliband’s pylons plan. As for consequences, they are for wimps.

Hardly h...

The government wants to future-proof the BBC. How about embracing a subscription model? | Simon Jenkins

Lisa Nandy needs creative ideas for the broadcaster. A hybrid funding settlement could protect its Reithian tradition

The BBC is still in the premier league of great British institutions – just. Other countries have public broadcasters, but none has the BBC’s range and authority. For generations, the corporation has served as a beacon of quality entertainment and journalism. Its World Service is a global shrine to the English language, with an astonishing 320 million worshippers. The BBC’s viewer...

I don’t want to hear MPs’ personal testimonies in parliament. Issues like assisted dying are for heads, not hearts | Simon Jenkins

On matters of war, of life and death, we hear emotional stories from politicians. It may be engaging, but I’m not sure it is right

Recently, John Healey, the relatively new defence secretary, made a personal confession. He told how his son’s current military service “plays on his mind when deciding to commit British soldiers to areas of risk”. He confessed that “it makes me lose sleep” and helps him “understand the gravity of military action overseas”.

We can only sympathise, and some might perhap...