Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 54

The Brexit crisis is political. Its resolution must be political too | Simon Jenkins

Whatever the supreme court decides, Boris Johnson should recall parliament and compromise on the Irish backstop

Boris Johnson is looking like Saint Sebastian, pierced with a thousand arrows but with a saintly smile on his face. Next week more judges join in the archery, as the supreme court begins his prorogation case. Who knows what damage they might do? Their task is simple. The purpose of a supreme court is not to avoid politics but to set its rules, to frame it in law.

This week’s Scottish...

The London arms fair is an inexcusable disgrace – it’s a stain on the nation | Simon Jenkins

British-made weapons fuel violence around the world – much of it perpetrated by repressive regimes. It must stop

This week’s London arms market – decorously called a “fair” – is a national disgrace and the protesters currently calling attention to it are right. It is a shameless marketplace for global death and destruction, vitiating any work done by British diplomacy in support of a more peaceful world.

The best apology the government can offer is that it “supports jobs”. The same line of argu...

The prime minister revels in war rhetoric, but could end up its victim | Simon Jenkins

What should be reasonable trade negotiations are being cast as a battle for the nation’s soul. Nothing good can come of it

Boris Johnson wants war. He knows Britons love war, especially with Europe. He and his allies have turned a technical debate about trade policy into a Battle of Britain. They suggest ludicrously that the national economy faces an existential threat from Europe. They forget that in times of war countries seek to cohere, not descend into partisan strife. A single-issue gener...

Splitting the Tories now is stupid. But Johnson knows only tribal machismo | Simon Jenkins

Confrontation or court cases won’t solve Brexit divisions. Any compromise from Brussels requires a united ruling party here

Boris Johnson claims that anyone who opposes his increasingly likely no-deal Brexit is anti-democratic, against the “people”, a closet remainer or a Labour voter. Such abusive mendacity is no help.

Related: Tory deselection threat 'may boost plan to stop no-deal Brexit'

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Only one person can avert a no-deal Brexit. And that’s Boris Johnson | Simon Jenkins

It’s too late for parliament to thwart his antics. But if the agreement were revived he could claim Brexit as a victory

This is not well done. The prime minister, Boris Johnson, displays cowardice and mendacity in insulting parliament with enforced suspension, and then in claiming that it has nothing to do with Brexit. It has everything to do with Brexit. It is not just an insult. It is a lie.

Related: Boris Johnson is trashing the democracy fought for with the blood of our ancestors | Owen Jo...

Boris Johnson should have the guts to kill HS2 | Simon Jenkins

The disastrous rail scheme is a high-speed opportunity for this most waffling of politicians to grasp a tough decision and take it

HS2 has long been a masterpiece of fake news, courtesy of the British state. Since at least 2015, no one privy to its blossoming extravagance has believed for one moment in its “budget” of £56bn. The National Audit Office and the Treasury did not believe it; commons committees did not believe it; thinktanks did not believe it. When I reported in June 2016 that Trea...

Boris Johnson should call the DUP’s bluff and create a border in the Irish Sea | Simon Jenkins

Only a separate, soft-Brexit status for Northern Ireland can resolve the backstop conundrum

As Boris Johnson journeyed back from this week’s desperate trip to Germany and France, he might have reflected on his hero Churchill and those “dreary steeples of Fermanagh and Tyrone.” Somehow those totems of Britain’s archaic colonisation of Ireland refuse to release their stranglehold on British politics. And here was Johnson at their mercy, being lectured by Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron on how...

Corbyn could have been the nation’s saviour. But he’s just too tribal | Simon Jenkins

Today’s speech was the Labour leader’s chance to muster a coalition against no deal. But all he wants is a general election

History is offering Jeremy Corbyn the gift of his dreams, and he is rejecting it. He has said he will do everything necessary to save Britain from the bizarre self-harm of no-deal Brexit, personally crafted by Boris Johnson. He will not.

Corbyn will not lay aside partisan rhetoric and muster the parliamentary coalition that alone might bar no deal in the coming weeks, nor...

Boris Johnson’s ‘crime fighting’ crusade is mere posturing | Simon Jenkins

The prime minister is vowing to tackle crime, even as it falls. It’s just a ruse to distract from the grim realities of Brexit

The most pressing issue facing Britain this month is not its falling crime rate. Yes, that reads falling crime rate – it has, indeed, been falling since 1995. The trouble is that it is not falling faster than Boris Johnson’s electoral prospects.

Hence a month-long blitz of headline-seeking announcements on “fighting crime”. We have had 20,000 more police, 10,000 more pr...

Independence for Scotland is inevitable – we need a plan for it | Simon Jenkins

If I were a Scot I’d vote for independence tomorrow. This crisis is Nicola Sturgeon’s opportunity

I hope Scotland and Nicola Sturgeon realise how much they may yet owe Boris Johnson. If I were a Scot, I would vote for independence tomorrow. I would want nothing more to do with the shambles of today’s Westminster parliament, which goes on holiday for a month during the worst political crisis in a generation. Labour’s John McDonnell is entirely correct to reassure the Scots of their right to sec...