Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 4

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...

Here’s a tip for the world’s politicians: sorry shouldn’t be the hardest word | Simon Jenkins

There is a clear benefit in taking responsibility for mistakes. So why do so many leaders fob off the public with obfuscation?

The Korean chief executive of Jeju Air, Kim E-bae, could not have been more direct. After the crash of one of the airline’s planes he went straight to the microphone, bowed deeply and said, “Regardless of the cause, as CEO, I feel profound responsibility for this incident.” He offered his “deepest condolences and apologies to the families of the passengers who lost their ...

Potholes everywhere, shoplifters rampant – today’s Britain looks as broken as it feels | Simon Jenkins

This is what happens when power over public services is stripped from local councils and handed to Whitehall

Every day in Britain the police are failing to arrest about 670 shoplifters. Down the road, your median wait in A&E is three hours. Meanwhile the number of care home beds has fallen by 18% in a decade, and the recent budget will cut them further. Prisons are bursting. Schools are turning away autistic children. Meanwhile, the Treasury is promising to spend £1.6bn filling in 7m potholes on ...

If you’ve got children, you need to watch Swiped – and see how sick their phones are making them | Simon Jenkins

The terrible toll that smartphones are taking on young people is now undeniable. We need to start talking about a ban

Every parent of a school-age child should watch Swiped, the Channel 4 documentary on smartphones shown last week. It was devastating. It told of an Essex secondary school’s experiment in response to what it saw as a rise in anxiety and stress among its 11-year-olds. A group of them agreed to surrender their phones for three weeks.

The parents’ stories were familiar – of children un...

Labour’s ‘planning laws reform’ is really an attack on local democracy | Simon Jenkins

People should have a say in their surroundings. But in its bid to build 1.5m homes, the government has left them powerless

All proper democracies have two tiers, central and local. They are equally vital, but in Britain the second tier is all but dead. Local democracy has been crippled by Whitehall since Margaret Thatcher’s rate-capping in the 1980s and councils became cash-strapped agencies of central government. There are now fewer councillors in Britain than there are local councils in France....

Biden pardons his son, Trump will absolve his criminal allies. America shouldn’t stand for this | Simon Jenkins

The outgoing president’s abuse of the constitution opens the door to more abuse by the next one. The rules were never meant to condone crime

The hypocrisy is breathtaking. Yes, any father might do the same for a son. Yes, the boy is reformed, forgiven, on the mend. Only nasty people are out to jail him. Live and let live. Yet there is something monumental in the pardon granted by the outgoing US president, Joe Biden. Six months ago, he scored political points by denying he would pardon his son Hu...

It’s outrageous that religious faith is being brought into the assisted dying debate | Simon Jenkins

Britain is a largely secular country. Those who oppose the bill before parliament should not be interfering with other people’s right to choose for themselves

I recently attended memorial services for two friends. Both died after long illnesses, and the services were naturally sad. But the subsequent receptions were uplifting. Two lives were celebrated by those who had shared them. Achievements were praised and loved ones recalled. All agreed on one tragedy: that the subjects were absent from an ...