Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 6

Could we all be as positive as Chris Hoy facing death? Perhaps knowing when we will go changes everything | Simon Jenkins

As Hoy has said, there is agony in trying to predict the future. Medical advances mean we might be able to navigate an awful diagnosis with some certainty

We can all sympathise with Chris Hoy for his terminal cancer, and admire the manner in which he revealed it. Dignity so rarely goes with celebrity. We wish him well. But Hoy has two advantages over me. First, he cycles faster. Second, he knows how long he has to live. It is four years at the outside.

Hoy can therefore plan. He can draw up a fina...

Pylons rule and rural beauty is up for sale. Why do those in power so hate the countryside? | Simon Jenkins

Ed Miliband seems happy to see the landscape blighted. We value townscape – everywhere else has to fend for itself

Does Labour believe in beauty? The energy secretary, Ed Miliband, celebrated his arrival in office this summer by permitting three of the largest solar panel arrays in Britain. One, a Suffolk array covering nearly 2,800 acres, was described by a county councillor as “the poorest infrastructure application that I have ever dealt with”.

Now Miliband is demanding a procession of pylons f...

Starmer’s House of Lords reform only scratches the surface of its problems | Simon Jenkins

As the prime minister said himself in 2020, what it really requires is proper representation from the regions and nations. Where’s that conviction now?

Nothing reveals Britain’s aversion to change quite like its failure to reform the House of Lords. Since the turn of the 21st century, almost everyone in politics has agreed that this should take place. The Lords may be quaint and historic, but it is constitutionally indefensible. It is one of only two parliaments in the world, along with Lesotho, ...

Sudan's forgotten war is bloody and horrifying – but US bombs aren't the way to stop it | Simon Jenkins

The world must show it cares about the conflict, but relieving civilian suffering should take the place of military intervention

It is the most sickening league table on Earth. Which of the world’s three current major wars has resulted in the most deaths? On the latest figures, the Russia-Ukraine war has left more than 200,000 dead in two and a half years, overwhelmingly soldiers. The Hamas attack and ensuing Israeli assault on Gaza has registered 43,000 mostly civilian deaths, according to offic...

Britain needs to abandon its delusions of empire – giving up the Chagos Islands is a good start | Simon Jenkins

Labour says it is committed to other ‘overseas territories’, but why? These colonial-era dreams are costing the country dear

The British empire still sends governments mad. Labour’s Foreign Office minister in charge of its lasting shreds, Stephen Doughty, has granted the isolated Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean to the sovereignty of independent Mauritius. This modest act of decolonisation makes sense. But the government wants to retain a joint US-UK military base there. Why? Britain no longer ...

Former PMs have a wealth of experience. Why not put some on the Tory leadership ballot? | Simon Jenkins

It’s grim to think the four candidates are the best Conservative politics can offer. Why can’t others be considered?

Why is William Hague not standing as Tory leader rather than mere chancellor of Oxford? He is hale and hearty at 63. Is David Cameron also over the hill at 57? Come to that, where was Tony Blair, then 66, when the Labour party chose Keir Starmer as leader? Yes they had all “failed” in some respect during their own tenure in government, but they know the ropes and have the wisdom of...

Britain’s prehistoric attitude to drugs isn’t working. Why not learn from Texas? | Simon Jenkins

Cherrypicking what has worked from decriminalisation abroad is far preferable to building more prisons for drug offenders

What can a German do but a Briton cannot? What can a New Yorker, a Chicagoan and a San Franciscan do, but a Londoner cannot? What can Canadians, Dutch, Portuguese, Chileans, Uruguayans, Maltese all do? The answer is they can legally smoke cannabis. In California there are now courses for cannabis sommeliers. In Britain they would be thrown in jail.

Half a century ago, Britons ...

Working from home is the great social experiment of our age – it’s too soon for the state to wade in | Simon Jenkins

Labour laws are highly sensitive. The government should tread carefully when it comes to dictating where people do their jobs

What’s not to like about working from home? No commuting. More flexibility. Wear jeans. The boss can’t pester you. It’s a social revolution and it’s happening right now. Before Covid, 4.7% of employed Britons worked from home. Now, 40% say they work from home at least one day a week. Over much of clerical employment, the nine-to-five day has begun to vanish. Mind and body ...

Sue Gray’s salary isn’t the problem – it’s the backstage power struggle Starmer cannot afford| Simon Jenkins

Mere weeks into the dawn of a new Labour era, Starmer’s No 10 is enmeshed in a spat more typical of a regime on its last legs

The most remarkable feature of the Sue Gray saga is not how much the Downing Street chief of staff earns, but how little Britain’s prime minister does. Keir Starmer gets just £166,786, which is about £3,000 less than Gray. But then she gets less than many permanent secretaries, not to mention the consultants and lawyers Whitehall is crawling with these days. Besides, as we...

Keir Starmer’s missile bravado could jeopardise Nato’s careful balancing act in Ukraine | Simon Jenkins

Allowing the use of British long-range missiles against Russia would be a mistake of potentially nuclear proportions

The greatest disaster to emerge from the war in Ukraine would be a collapsed Nato. For the prime minister, Keir Starmer, to be signalling confusion over British missile use shows how much he still has to learn.

Throughout the past two years, Nato’s efforts to avoid an east-west escalation along Russia’s border have been disciplined and impressive. With Vladimir Putin ruthless, unsta...