Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 47
May 1, 2020
Why can I visit a DIY shop but not a museum? This total lockdown is failing | Simon Jenkins
We should focus on the areas where infection is most likely and liberate the countryside, playgrounds and pub gardens
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A woman sits on a bench by the Thames. Two policemen arrive and tell her to stand up. Two boys remove their shirts in Holland Park. They are told to put them back on. A policeman shouts at two girls in bikinis on Primrose Hill to get dressed. How dare they enjoy themselves.
You can crowd a London Tube train but not...
April 27, 2020
It's good that Boris Johnson is back to work. But he is waffling | Simon Jenkins
In his address to the nation, the prime minister was maddeningly short on specifics about how we get out of lockdown
Boris Johnsons swift return to duty is welcome. He has clearly been through a personal nightmare. Given the pressures on him, he deserves sympathy and congratulations. In his address to the nation this morning he was characteristically Churchillian. He says Britain has come through coronavirus so far with flying colours....
April 24, 2020
Newspapers are enjoying a surge in popularity, but they're struggling to survive | Simon Jenkins
Journalists are excelling in holding government to account over coronavirus. If the press suffers, so does democracy
At last it is MPs who are asking questions. On Wednesday, after parliaments long Easter holiday, the new Labour leader, Keir Starmer, asked five questions in the House of Commons. But the questions about statistics, supplies, tests, care homes have been around for weeks. Ministers have been challenged, comparisons...
April 20, 2020
No one is in charge of the UK's coronavirus response – and it shows | Simon Jenkins
NHS promises unmet, local government ignored, care homes forgotten. Has any British politician got their hand on the tiller?
Something is clearly wrong. Britain does not need Boris Johnson, but it needs a prime minister, and badly. Coronavirus promises are made and not fulfilled. Orders go out and are not delivered. The clothing industry in the UK apparently cannot mass-produce a simple medical gown or mask, and must turn to Turkey, China and volunteers with sewing machines and 3D printers...
April 17, 2020
HS2 was always a white elephant. To launch it now is a disgrace | Simon Jenkins
The coronavirus recession will hurt all parts of society but nothing can derail a Conservative megaproject
It is beyond cynical. Almost every business in Britain is in lockdown. Shops are shut, factories padlocked, firms bankrupted, millions pushed into short- or long-term unemployment. They are told by the cabinet, We are all in this together.
No we are not. Somewhere contractors are popping the champagne and consultants carting their fees to the bank. These are not medical suppliers, care...
April 13, 2020
Which is the best option, lockdown or herd immunity? We're about to find out | Simon Jenkins
So far we havent had the evidence to truly judge leaders and their coronavirus policies. With policies easing, we soon will
The trickle is starting. Spain, Austria, Italy, China, possibly Germany and the US will this week begin, however hesitantly, the great return to work. As others hold back and some may even toughen lockdowns, the result will be the most extraordinary mass experiment in history.
The outcome should go some way to...
April 10, 2020
The coronavirus crisis has exposed the truth about the EU: it's not a real union | Simon Jenkins
The arguing over a financial rescue package for hard-hit states shows that even member states dont trust Europe
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The European Union has scraped through its latest crisis by the skin of its teeth. The past week has been a disgrace. When ministerial talks collapsed on Thursday over the plan for a coronabond, the reaction seemed terminal. Germans and Dutch insulted Italians and Spaniards. Italys prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, said his...
April 6, 2020
With Boris Johnson in hospital, government is adrift | Simon Jenkins
As we wish the PM a speedy recovery from coronavirus, we must recognise that the machinery of power is malfunctioning
Boris Johnson is ill and in hospital. That must be wretched for him and his family. We can only wish him well and a speedy recovery. His infection by Covid-19 indicates the extraordinary contagiousness of this disease and possibly its widespread prevalence. Of the first there is now no doubt. Of the second, without testing, there is no clue.
That a prime minister is ill is a...
April 2, 2020
Was I wrong about coronavirus? Even the world's best scientists can't tell me | Simon Jenkins
I cant tell if my optimism is misguided when experts disagree on everything from mortality rates to preventive measures
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I was wrong. Or I think I was. I heard Boris Johnson on 3 March leap into war mode and publish 28 pages of emergency plans, should coronavirus take hold in Britain. There were reports that half a million could die. I was sceptical.
I noted that in 1999 it had been said that BSE could kill half a million. Sars in...
March 20, 2020
Coronavirus has exposed a desperate need for localism | Simon Jenkins
A new Beveridge-style report on the welfare of communities could help our traumatised minds focus on the future
Coronavirus latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageAt the height of the blitz in 1941, the labour minister Ernie Bevin so disliked an official called William Beveridge that he got rid of him to write a report on national insurance. As the bombs fell, an angry Beveridge proposed an entire postwar welfare state, with financial security from cradle to grave. No one seemed to mind...
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