Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 50

Britain has failed the beauty test: in our cities and countryside, planners run amok | Simon Jenkins

If adopted, proposals for the rural and urban environment could see the greatest reordering of public space in 70 years

Seldom does a philosopher get to rule. Now one does – if, sadly, posthumously. The late Roger Scruton’s government-backed report on “building better, building beautiful” is political philosophy in the raw. It comes hot on the heels of the government’s agriculture bill proposing a complete shift in farm support away from food and into “public money for public goods”. If...

Boris Johnson’s ‘global talent visa’ ignores economics – and ethics | Simon Jenkins

Britain does not need more scientists. Yet the PM wants to poach them from poorer countries and turn away everyone else

Now we know. Boris Johnson’s exclusive “global talent visa”, to be launched in February, is aimed at “the world’s scientists and mathematicians”. It will prove, he says, that post-Brexit “the UK is open to the most talented minds in the world” – so long as they are scientists. As for entrepreneurs, economists, humanitarians, historians, artists, let alone mere caring human...

HS2 was only ever about politics. And the battle will reach the heart of No 10 | Simon Jenkins

On the one side, the lobbyists; on the other, Boris Johnson’s closest advisers. This will be a major test of his mettle

Will it be yes or no to HS2? Within the next fortnight the answer is due on whether Britain needs a fifth rail pathway to the north from London. At more than 100bn, it would be the country’s biggest peacetime infrastructure project. HS2 no longer has anything to do with trains, let alone economics, politics or the north-south balance. It is about Boris Johnson and what sort...

Shipping the House of Lords north is a great idea. Let’s send the MPs as well | Simon Jenkins

Why not shift the entire national debate away from London while the Palace of Westminster is restored?

Will we soon see ermine on the Ouse? The weekend’s report that the House of Lords might be moving, lock, stock and barrel, to York is radical, exciting and sensible. If this is the new Boris Johnson, all hail the chief. It is precisely the talisman needed of a government that has had enough of the southwards drift. Such ideas are often mooted but always crushed by a reactionary Westminster....

Banning cars from city centres will enable our roads to blossom | Simon Jenkins

By making inner Birmingham car-free, the city has the chance to make amends for the terrible mistakes made in the 1960s

The great god Car is dead. The former acolytes assembled in the British petrolhead’s chief city of Birmingham this week and announced they never want to see bumper, bonnet or wheel spoke again – with most cars to be banned from a centre they hope can become uncongested, unpolluted and green. This is true revolution.

But what about the mess left behind? Birmingham in the 1960s...

As Harry and Meghan are finding out, the royals don’t do ‘progressive’ | Simon Jenkins

If the Sussexes thought they could create a new kind of royalty, the circling of the Windsor wagons should put them right

No, the monarchy is not in crisis. No, the princes are not bullies. No, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will not be destitute, merely stinking rich. No, they will not go unprotected. In a nutshell, the past few days’ events, inconceivable in any other democracy, really do not matter.

Pull the other one. The nation is on tenterhooks, or at least its mass media is. The royal...

Donald Trump’s rant against Iran is the howl of a dying empire | Simon Jenkins

As the president slurred ritualised abuse of Iran and pleas to Nato, we saw the US’s days as world hegemon dribbling away

Donald Trump does not strut the world stage as Augustus triumphant. On Wednesday he might have commanded that “Iran will never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon … we will never let that happen”. But as he slurred at his autocue, he conveyed only ritualised abuse of Iran and pleas to Nato for help, a Nato he once majestically derided. I sensed we were seeing the US’s days...

Trump says Iran will never have a nuclear weapon as Tehran mourns Suleimani – as it happened

Follow the latest developments as huge crowds pack streets of Tehran in memory of Iranian general

6.01pm GMT

We’re going to bring this blog to a close now. Our US politics live blog will have all the latest fallout from the killing of Suleimani and there will be more reports and analysis on Iran page.

6.00pm GMT

Related: Here's what could be lost if Trump bombs Iran's cultural treasures

5.51pm GMT

The UK foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, has called for a “diplomatic way through” the crisis.

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Donald Trump’s belligerent threats to Iran’s cultural sites are grotesque | Simon Jenkins

The war crimes proposed by the US president would only strengthen his enemy’s clerical regime

Donald Trump’s threat to destroy the sites of ancient Persia should send a shiver down the spine of any civilised person. How can anything justify American bombing of Persepolis or the mosques of Isfahan? Only the demented can see them as “threatening America”. It is on the same ethical plane as the Islamic State vandalism of Palmyra and Mosul.

The destruction of cultural artefacts in war is...

To survive, Britain’s churches need to learn from our cathedrals | Simon Jenkins

While parish church attendance continues to fall, cathedrals are becoming much-needed cultural and therapeutic hubs

I believe that on Wednesday something odd happened. Probably 2.7 million people went to a Christmas service in their local Anglican church, a total that has risen steadily over the past decade. On Sunday, however, the number will plummet back to a weekly 700,000 and falling. Christian faith in the UK is in decline, with less than half of the population now believing “in God or a...