Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 43

People don't trust the facts about Trump's coronavirus. Is it any wonder? | Simon Jenkins

An unregulated internet was always likely to breed confusion, denial and conspiracy theories. This is its nadir

The president is not really sick. He is very sick. He is pretending. He is not pretending. That was his body double in the car. He may die. The illness is a fake to win Christian sympathy.

To QAnon’s followers, Covid is a deep-state Democrat trick to enslave the US and Trump’s “illness” is tactical. So don’t trust anything any more. We are in a maelstrom of information, spin and lies. No...

Let's seize this rare chance to abolish school exams and league tables

The regime of perennial assessment so beloved of our politicians is an absurdity that actively damages young people

Hope springs eternal. The government was this week pressed to cancel school examinations for a second year in a row. One in six state secondary schools are not fully open, and thousands of pupils are being excluded under quarantine measures – even those who are well. So the government should ease the exam burden and let schools catch up. As the Sheffield educationist Sir Chris Husba...

The Tory revolt against new coronavirus rules shows Johnson is not secure | Simon Jenkins

With a leadership vacuum at the top of government, parliament is trying to take back some control

For rule of six read rule of 50. It is hard to believe that the Commons Speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, will appease Boris Johnson and refuse this week’s amendment to the Covid lockdown bill from the Tory backbench leader Graham Brady. Brady wants parliament to be free to monitor Johnson’s six-month emergency pandemic bill of unprecedented curbs on personal liberty. He claims to have 50 Tory MPs behind him, ...

Why do students travel to university? Covid has proved they don't need to | Simon Jenkins

Freshers’ week in Glasgow has turned into a fiasco. But tech advances mean most students can become digital commuters

Who ever thought it a good idea to disperse 2 million Covid super-spreaders across British cities this month? One hundred and twenty-four returning Glasgow students have already tested positive, with dozens more at Aberdeen, St Andrews and elsewhere. Six hundred are now confined to their Glasgow lodgings and told they may have to stay there through Christmas. Now this fiasco is to...

Britain needs to live with coronavirus, not in fear of it | Simon Jenkins

Vallance and Whitty spoke reasonably and sincerely in their press conference. But their data was selective, and they seem determined to cause alarm

Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverage

Thank goodness for scientists talking about coronavirus rather than politicians. They speak English and sound sincere. Today’s presentation by Whitehall’s Sir Patrick Vallance and Chris Whitty was devoid of slogan and cliche. They just wanted to say that the virus was back, Covid-19 numbers w...

Hitachi failed its nuclear test. If only it had the vanity of HS2 | Simon Jenkins

It seems there’s cash only for the trophy projects that feed politicians’ egos, no matter how wasteful they are

Poor Wylfa. The nuclear power station nestles in a landscape of bliss in north Wales, but it was never glamorous enough for Westminster. This week the Japanese firm Hitachi failed to get sufficient government subsidy for its rebuilding, and pulled out. Wylfa lacks the political magnetism of the only other spearhead into Britain’s new nuclear age, Hinkley Point.

Related: HS2: constructio...

Why isn't Starmer standing up to Johnson over Brexit? | Simon Jenkins

No deal would be a disaster for the British economy. The Labour leader should be doing everything in his power to avert it

Why is the opposition leader, Keir Starmer, being so kind to Boris Johnson over Brexit? In the Commons last week he decorously downplayed the prime minister’s conversion to law-breaking. At the weekend he gently told Telegraph readers it was “wrong” but pleaded for everyone to “stop banging on about Europe”. Tory grandees and backbenchers are left howling for Johnson’s blood ...

Johnson's hard Brexit is about to deliver a devastating hit to our Covid-struck economy | Simon Jenkins

With its international reputation in tatters and businesses in despair, Britain has painted itself deeper into a corner

No one I know has a clue what the current row over last year’s Brexit withdrawal deal really means. All they see is another mess from a dysfunctional Downing Street.

One thing should be clear. The argument has nothing to do with the UK leaving the EU, which has already happened. It has to do with a different but related decision, Boris Johnson’s belief that the UK should also lea...

These U-turns show Johnson is not informed by science but scared witless by it | Simon Jenkins

The prime minister blames ‘mutant’ algorithms but it’s increasingly clear his government is not up to the job

Boris Johnson has found a new role for Britain’s most endangered transport mode, the bus. He throws civil servants under it. After decapitating the Foreign Office and Cabinet Office, he has rid himself of Public Health England and those he regards as to blame for recent exam U-turns, Sally Collier of Ofqual and Jonathan Slater of the Department for Education. They have gone to save the sk...

Why are parents still scared to send their children back to school? Ask Boris Johnson | Simon Jenkins

The prime minister’s bluster, deception and bombast have ill-prepared the nation for recovery from the coronavirus pandemic

Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverage

England’s schools must reopen. That is abundantly clear. The medical advice is that this is safe, within all reasonable bounds of risk, and that keeping children out of school is the true harm. Throughout the pandemic, more have died in suicides, fights and accidents at home than of Covid-19. Infection passed to old...