Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 5

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 ...

The west’s reckless escalation of the war in Ukraine will cause more suffering, for no strategic gain | Simon Jenkins

Putin is an isolated dictator, devoid of scruple. Firing missiles into Russia will only lead to more hardship for the people of Ukraine

This is how big wars start, when small ones go wrong. Nato politicians are deliberately playing with fire along the Ukrainian frontier, as UK-made missiles have been launched into Russia for the first time since the beginning of the conflict. The attack came a day after Kyiv used US-supplied long-range weapons to strike within Russia. Every military comment on Br...

Construction is the world’s biggest polluter, yet Labour still refuses to tackle it | Simon Jenkins

Refurbishing an old building is subject to full VAT, but it isn’t if you build a polluting new one. The government’s priorities are all wrong

You can damn oil companies, abuse cars, insult nimbys, kill cows, befoul art galleries. But you must never, ever criticise the worst offender of all. The construction industry is sacred to both the left and the right. It may be the world’s greatest polluter, but it is not to be criticised. It is the elephant in the global-heating room.

It’s hard not to feel ...

What should Biden do with his remaining time? Get a peace deal done in Ukraine | Simon Jenkins

The end to this bloody stalemate must come with negotiation, and Putin should not wait until Trump is in the White House

First the good news. The US is talking to Russia. Then the bad. Vladimir Putin has been phoned not by the current US president, but by a known admirer and sceptic of the US’s support for Ukraine, the president-elect, Donald Trump. Could these two facts offer a path to peace?

Two years ago, Putin made a terrible mistake. He thought he could invade Ukraine and topple its leader, V...

Yes, Trump is awful. But if there’s a silver lining, it’s a chance for progressives to reflect on what they got wrong | Simon Jenkins

The president-elect benefited from working-class hostility to a remote elite. Liberals need to reargue their case

Yes, we all know it looks terrible. We have heard what Donald Trump has promised. But could there be silver linings to these ominous clouds? The election was two days ago. Tomorrow is another day, and this strange, faulty, thin-skinned but tough-as-nails character is notable for one thing: unpredictability.

The essence of Trump is that he is not a politician but an egotistical wheeler-...