Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 56

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...

Boris Johnson is clearly hiding from scrutiny – even diehard fans may start to have doubts | Simon Jenkins

How long can party members dazzled by the would-be Tory leader’s glamour ignore the evidence before them?

Cowardly, untrustworthy, disrespectful, unmanly, slinking into office through the back door. Thus did Tory leadership candidate Jeremy Hunt describe his rival Boris Johnson. And that, as the historian Edward Gibbon said of a dodgy pope, was Hunt declining to mention “the most scandalous charges”.

A nocturnal spat, supposedly over a wine stain, between Johnson and his girlfriend, Carrie Symo...

Hunt and Johnson are wildly different, but it’s the latter who can deliver Brexit | Simon Jenkins

The former foreign secretary would roar, skid, veer and cheat, but would be more likely to carry Brexiters with him

Now there are two. The choice of Britain’s next prime minister devolves to the Tory faithful – to many Britons a disconcerting prospect. The Tory leadership election has been an eccentric display of parliamentary oligarchy. It is the British way.

Boris Johnson is now clear favourite to win. His rival Jeremy Hunt has emerged hesitantly from an uninspiring field, in which only the o...

Heathrow’s third runway plan beggars belief. So don’t expect Boris Johnson to block it | Simon Jenkins

The strategy unveiled this week by the airport is monstrous – and the former London mayor has gone quiet about opposing it

I will lie down in front of those bulldozers and stop the construction of that third runway … Heathrow is just undeliverable, and the sooner we face that the sooner our salvation.”

This was then London mayor Boris Johnson’s most famous pledge, made in 2015. Expanding an airport on the outskirts of a major city, he told delighted listeners, was “the kind of thing that could...

Hail to the oxymoron-in-chief, Boris Johnson | Simon Jenkins

Rory Stewart might be the only honest candidate amid his rivals’ Brexit lies, but the crown is Johnson’s

Boris Johnson was right: group debates are awful. Last night was Love Island with one-liners, five rivals pouting and shouting at the same time. Since viewers have no voice or vote in the outcome, what was the point? Job interviews should be conducted individually, not as a group.

Related: Silence is golden as Boris's lectern wins Tory televised debate | John Crace

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Boris Johnson may be an incompetent liar, but charm is his secret weapon | Simon Jenkins

His record as London mayor is farcical. Yet disillusioned Labour voters are as mesmerised by him as punch-drunk Tories

Charm is politics’ deadliest weapon. It is not charisma, the authority to lead through an electrifying presence. It is a subtler, more intangible quality, possessed by Boris Johnson. He may be blatantly unqualified as Britain’s next prime minister, but following yesterday’s first-round leadership ballot, he is still odds-on favourite. The basis for this lies in his disposition...