Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 55

Boris Johnson is as likely to avoid an Irish backstop as fly to the moon | Simon Jenkins

The likely next prime minister must swallow his pride and make a deal with Dublin. Or parliamentary disaster awaits him

Build that wall! Build that wall! So Donald Trump’s fans roared their support for his xenophobic rants. So scream fans of Boris Johnson’s no-deal Brexit. He wants walls against the EU in place by 31 October. But he has no more idea than Trump about how to erect them. This is despite having been foreign secretary and with a former Brexit negotiator, Dominic Raab, at his side.

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Scotland has a drugs problem – and it’s called Westminster | Simon Jenkins

A spike in deaths shows the failure of centralised policies. Holyrood should be allowed to try new methods

Scotland’s drug mortality rate cannot be shelved as just another misery statistic. It has risen by 27% in a year and is three times England and Wales’s rate, 50 times Portugal’s and higher even than that of the United States. Westminster is clearly deaf to this tragedy. There is only one solution. Declare it Scotland’s problem. Let Scotland decide what to do.

Every country in the developed...

Sadiq Khan has rejected the Tulip. But that won’t save London’s skyline | Simon Jenkins

The mayor has been as bad as Boris Johnson in bowing down to speculators. If only his interest in design had kicked in sooner

Tulipmania is no more. London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, has rejected Norman Foster’s 1,000ft “Tulip” for the City of London, crowning an unhappy week for the architect. On the same day, his obsession with “iconic” edifices hit a wall in Paris, where his gigantic twin towers at La Défense were rejected. Khan for once agreed with Historic England and others that the Tulip was...

The right result in the Cricket World Cup final would have been a tie | Simon Jenkins

Money and chauvinism demand a victor and a vanquished. But in reality England and New Zealand were sporting equals

Human nature hates a balance. It craves a victor and a vanquished. In yesterday’s Cricket World Cup final, not a wafer separated the England and New Zealand teams. They tied. The sporting solution would be for both captains to admit the fact and shake hands. But the money, the chauvinism, the howls from the gallery, were more powerful. Kipling’s “twin imposters”, triumph and disas...

Trump created a storm over Kim Darroch. Boris Johnson will bring a hurricane | Simon Jenkins

With the forces of no deal whirling faster, Johnson is banking on the idea that a dramatic shock could be Britain’s salvation

Imagine chaos. Dream disruption. Think of a hundred Kim Darrochs as the Boris Johnson moment approaches. Tear up the script. Shout “no deal”. Laugh with Johnson, cry with him. Welcome to anarchy hall.

Related: Boris Johnson: I'll make UK 'match fit' for no-deal Brexit

Related: I’m a farmer, and no-deal Brexit would put me out of business | Will Case

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The sea captain facing jail after saving the lives of refugees – podcast

Carola Rackete defied Italy’s ban on migrant rescue ships by forcing her way into the port of Lampedusa last week. She tells the Guardian’s Lorenzo Tondo she would do it all again, even though she faces a lengthy trial and a possible jail sentence. Plus: Simon Jenkins on the leaked diplomatic cables of the UK’s Washington ambassador, which were highly critical of Donald Trump

On 12 June the crew of the rescue ship Sea-Watch 3 pulled a group of migrants from an inflatable raft drifting off the...

How can Kim Darroch represent Britain in Trump’s Washington now? | Simon Jenkins

The UK ambassador was a fool to put his unvarnished opinions in writing and think they would be kept secret

Uniquely dysfunctional, incompetent, unpredictable, faction-riven, diplomatically clumsy, inept. That is Donald Trump’s Washington according to Britain’s ambassador, Sir Kim Darroch. Or is it perhaps Theresa May’s London according to the US’s ambassador to London, Woody Johnson? The difference is that we know the first, but not the second.

Leak inquiries, like that now ordered into the Da...

Someone, please tell Jeremy Hunt: Britain no longer rules the waves | Simon Jenkins

He prefers to inflate his Tory leadership chances than face the truth about Britain’s lack of influence in Hong Kong

It was June 1997 and I was standing in the crowd on Hong Kong’s waterfront in torrential rain. A sad bugle played as the flag was lowered, and the royal yacht Britannia carried the Prince of Wales out to sea – and Britain out of its last Asian colony. We all had one thought. Thank goodness that’s over. Hong Kong’s last governor, Chris Patten, left what China clearly saw as a mes...

Cliff Richard is right to seek anonymity for those accused of sex crimes | Simon Jenkins

Naming the accused before they are formally charged breaches the rules of natural justice and has wrecked lives

The injustice suffered by Cliff Richard in 2017 defied the maxim “words can never hurt you”. Anonymously accused of a sex crime, his good name was devastated by a publicity-seeking police force in collusion with a scoop-seeking BBC. Both later admitted fault and the BBC paid damages.

Similar calumny was visited on other public figures, including the broadcaster Paul Gambaccini, former...

Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt will have to ditch no deal – or face an election | Simon Jenkins

The Tory leadership contenders’ tough talk is irresponsible. In reality a hard Brexit would spark a parliamentary crisis

The Tory leadership bid has become a miniature general election on a single issue: no-deal Brexit. It is an election on the narrowest franchise since the 18th century. As a result it is being conducted like a public-school stunt, a sneer in the face of those who will be its principal victims. We don’t care what it costs, say Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt, as the Treasury blo...