Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 49

Top of the shops: how has Oxford Street survived the slow death of the high street?

It was the birthplace of the modern retail experience and is still one of the world’s most famous shopping destinations. But why, in an age of online retail, do shoppers still flock to it?

Harry Gordon Selfridge was out to win. The year was 1909 and the US retail magnate was opening his new store in London’s Oxford Street. His rival was the terracotta monolith of Harrods in Knightsbridge. The latter had just opened complete with an escalator, which so terrified customers that staff had to...

On fishing and farming, Johnson may again be forced to back down | Simon Jenkins

In his dealings with Brussels, the prime minister must remember that nothing could replace the loss of the continental market

When anyone mentions fishing and farming to a Brexit minister, the usual answer is that they are a trivial 1% of Britain’s economy. Perhaps they are. But they are not 1% of its politics.

As talks start this week in Brussels, British negotiators have been sent into battle by Boris Johnson with the pompous rhetoric of Henry V at Harfleur. They must give not an inch. First...

If the regions are to rise, London must take a hit | Simon Jenkins

Northern cities will only flourish when the capital stops stealing their young people

I recall one word that dominated a business seminar in Manchester some time ago. The seminar was on the north-south divide, and the word was London. It was obsessive. Why does London keep taking our best people, everyone asked? Why do our children all want to get to London?

This week’s report by Lord Kerslake on the north-south divide presents the problem in graphic terms. The Organisation for Economic...

Priti Patel is out of her depth – and that is Boris Johnson’s fault | Simon Jenkins

The Home Office needs artful, subtle leadership. Instead, it’s been saddled with an insensitive rightwing loyalist

When a boss and her number two issue statements professing love for each other, something is wrong. Witness the home secretary, Priti Patel, and her chief civil servant, Philip Rutnam, countering rumours from within their department. These allegations about Patel, leaked to the press, include “bullying”, “belittling officials”, creating an atmosphere of fear, and being out of her...

We can’t leave it to billionaires like Bezos and Bloomberg to solve the world’s problems | Simon Jenkins

It’s up to government to tax and spend for the good of all, and not the mega-rich seeking a warm glow

So who do you want for president, this “arrogant billionaire” or the other one? You don’t have to be rich to win US elections, but it helps. Michael Bloomberg’s assault on the Democratic party may be an extreme case of wealth attempting to buy power, but, as he implied on Wednesday, if it takes a person of extreme wealth to be rid of Donald Trump, so be it.

At least Bloomberg is running for...

Flooding in the UK isn’t an act of God, it’s an act of government | Simon Jenkins

A 1.2bn supercomputer for the Met Office is no substitute for effective planning and proper wildlife management

Here we go again. It rains in Britain and an emergency is declared. Nearly 600 flood warnings are issued in England on a single day and the environment secretary, George Eustice, declares it impossible to “protect every single household”. But he can protect the Met Office. It is to get another 1.2bn of public money for a “supercomputer”, just six years after getting 97m for a...

After giving HS2 the go-ahead, Boris Johnson can never again say there’s no money | Simon Jenkins

If a few businessmen can claim 100bn of public money for a dud project, how can he refuse a new hospital or school?

Britain’s greatest white elephant, HS2, was always a dud railway. It has grazed for 10 years on the Treasury lawn, and has now has been told it can stay, more dud than ever. It was symbolic this week that Boris Johnson launched HS2 not in the north but in a giant patch of Birmingham mud. Next to him stood his chancellor, Sajid Javid. They already looked like executioner and...

After giving HS2 the go-head, Boris Johnson can never again say there’s no money | Simon Jenkins

If a few businessmen can claim 100bn of public money for a dud project, how can he refuse a new hospital or school?

Britain’s greatest white elephant, HS2, was always a dud railway. It has grazed for 10 years on the Treasury lawn, and has now has been told it can stay, more dud than ever. It was symbolic this week that Boris Johnson launched HS2 not in the north but in a giant patch of Birmingham mud. Next to him stood his chancellor, Sajid Javid. They already looked like executioner and...

It wasn’t the US Senate that saved Trump – it was the founding fathers | Simon Jenkins

The president’s impeachment acquittal was never in doubt, because that’s how the US constitution was meant to work

Donald Trump has not, as he claimed this week, been “fully vindicated and exonerated” of impeachment by the US Senate. Vindicated instead are the 63 million voters who backed him in 2016 and who have, in effect, terrorised their senators into keeping him in office. The issue is not whether Trump was innocent as charged, any more than was Bill Clinton in 1999. The Senate dismissed...

Boris Johnson is about to find out just how weak the UK is after Brexit | Simon Jenkins

Britain’s economic weight has diminished since leaving the EU. The government must acknowledge this in trade negotiations

Here we go again. Brexit did not end on Friday night. Formal divorce proceedings reached a messy conclusion, but the couple will cohabit for at least another 11 months. Nothing in practice has changed. No one is hurt, yet. Anything might still happen.

A helpful sign has been the hopes expressed by sensible Europeans such as the former EU president, Donald Tusk, for friendly...