Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 50

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...

This was the Queen’s speech – as written by Dominic Cummings | Simon Jenkins

Boris Johnson’s chief adviser may not be long in the ascendant, but he is clearly determined to make his mark

The Queen must be bored. “Her” speech today was a repeat of hers of two months ago, in which Boris Johnson pledged Brexit plus the moon to his new army of working-class voters in the regions. It worked, and now there will be Brexit. The hope must be that sanity can descend on this subject, and on what it means for Britain’s trading status with Europe and the world. Please let it be so....

The Lib Dems helped the Tories to victory again. Now they should disband | Simon Jenkins

The party’s only achievement was to split the vote. It should now merge with Labour and become a moderate influence

No, it was not just Jeremy Corbyn. Last week’s crushing defeat of the left was also caused by the Liberal Democrat party splitting the vote. Yet again, by offering itself as the vote launderer of British liberalism, it has served as merely the fellow traveller of British Conservatism. Boris Johnson owes it a huge debt of gratitude.

Misreading election results – largely so as to...

London’s Victorian churches deserve a second gothic revival

Many of the fine monuments to London’s golden age lie undervalued and underused. It’s time these brick and stone glories were brought back to life

They are London’s lost cathedrals. A few people still worship in them, a few more know of them, but few visit them. Whenever I have dropped by, they have been locked and seem deserted. Yet inside, these are masterpiece monuments of London’s age of confidence and flair, that of high Victorian gothic. They must be revived.

Related: Five new London...

There is hope: Boris Johnson’s big majority could unleash the social liberal within | Simon Jenkins

Everything is now in Johnson’s hands: and that includes opting for a softer Brexit, and dialling back his rightwing rhetoric

• Latest election news – live updates

Now what? Boris Johnson’s bonus for a stunning election victory is room for manoeuvre. He promised to “get Brexit done” and the UK will surely leave the EU in January. But he was careful not to say how. He only said that he would also leave Europe’s single market and customs union, a choice for which he will now claim a mandate. A...

We can’t rely on shops to revive our town centres. They need a new magnet | Simon Jenkins

High street shops cannot survive the death blow of online retail. But there are ways to make town centres come alive again

Another winter passes, and the plague continues its rampage through the high streets of Britain. Shutters are going up and stores are closing. The disease fells everything from the corner post office and pub to mighty names like M&S, Debenhams and House of Fraser. Like the climate crisis and the erosion of the countryside, the traumas of urban geography pass unnoticed...