Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 60

The City may thrive despite Brexit, but the rest of us won’t | Simon Jenkins

With a ‘free port’ deal negotiated behind closed doors, the financial sector will be fine. Meanwhile, others face ruin

An iron law of modern British government says that whatever London wants, London gets. On Monday, with no fuss or publicity, the Bank of England and a group of City interests reached an apparently boring deal in Paris with the European Security and Markets Authority. It follows a similar deal with the European commission last December. Both state, in effect, that, as far as th...

Facebook is out of control and politicians have no idea what to do | Simon Jenkins

A Commons report lays bare horrifying abuses. But the UK is no closer to regulating the far-too-powerful tech industry

Death threats, bullying, mental torture, privacy invasion, election rigging, fake news, monopoly abuse: as was said of a medieval pope, this is merely to suppress more serious charges. It is hard to recall the social media of 15 years ago and its offer of universal love, democracy and global peace. Britain’s parliament has finally caught up, and today’s Commons report is at le...

The Churchill row is part of the glib approach to history that gave us Brexit | Simon Jenkins

John McDonnell is entitled to dislike Britain’s wartime leader. But simplistic views of the past are at the root of many woes

Churchill, hero or villain? Prince Charles, goodie or baddie? Jesus Christ, yes or no? John McDonnell, modern Herodotus or fool? Tick the boxes and pass the GCSE. Welcome to the new history. McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, is entitled to dislike Winston Churchill, but why for Tonypandy? Churchill happened to be Liberal home secretary in 1910 and was asked to authorise...

British ‘lethality’? Gavin Williamson’s brain has gone absent without leave | Simon Jenkins

The defence secretary’s big talk about boosting the UK’s ‘global presence’ and ‘hard power’ proves he’s lost touch with reality

The defence secretary’s brain has gone absent without leave. Gavin Williamson said in a speech today that he intends to send his new aircraft carrier, the HMS Queen Elizabeth, round the world to frighten China. He will equip it with a squadron of F-35 fighter jets, purchased from America. In addition he wants to build two British military bases, one in Asia and the ot...

Why is the tax on a London mansion a tiny fraction of that in New York? | Simon Jenkins

While libraries and parks close and services for the vulnerable crumble, billionaires pay a pittance in council tax

Three of the most expensive homes in the world have been sold recently, and to one man. He is the American hedge-fund billionaire Ken Griffin. One will overlook Buckingham Palace at Hyde Park Corner and will cost £100m. Another is a new townhouse across the park at Carlton House Terrace, costing £95m. The third is a penthouse atop a “pencil block” at New York’s 220 Central Park S...

Nicolás Maduro must be praying for the US to intervene in Venezuela | Simon Jenkins

The only way the beleaguered Venezuelan president can shore up his position is if Trump blunders in

One thing alone could save the Maduro regime in Venezuela. That is western intervention. Nothing unites a country like a sovereign enemy on its borders. Venezuelans may hate their president, Nicolás Maduro, but they also hate the US. China may be exasperated, but it is Maduro’s ally, and would have to help him if the US attacked. So the US, and everyone else, should leave Venezuela alone. Uninte...

Brexiter MPs are not the problem – it’s the other 600 of them | Simon Jenkins

The fundamentalists are few in number, yet they got their way because the majority in parliament abandoned responsibility

I once wanted to be an MP, but a kind friend warned me off. He said I was far too interested in politics, and it would end in tears. I am sure he was right. Others I knew did enter parliament, and I admired their courage in opting for a tough and vital calling. But after this week’s Commons vote, I confess I have never held MPs in lower esteem. Never in my lifetime has the...

Stop ‘fighting’ cancer, and start treating it like any other illness | Simon Jenkins

People with cancer are fed up of the language of war. As I have experienced, using calmer terms helps us fear this illness less

Do you have a cancer? Or are you “a brave hero fighting against the demon foe”? Have you something in your body that needs removing, or are you a heroic victim in a war you may “win or lose”? A poll by Macmillan Cancer Support has found that many people with cancer are fed up with the language of war. They want to be treated like anyone else who is ill. They want to d...

Fake-history films like Vice and The Uncivil War are the new threat to truth | Simon Jenkins

The biopic about Dick Cheney is part of a disturbing fashion for film-makers to play fast and loose with historical facts

Is this the death of journalism – or just of history? This week sees the screening of Vice, a biopic of George W Bush’s vice-president, Dick Cheney, who is presented as the evil genius behind the Iraq war, torture and other misdemeanours. Its maker, Adam McKay, makes no bones about wishing to nail the misdeeds of a man “about to sail over the horizon”. His star, Christian B...

‘Brexit with an open border’ is a fantasy. Still Theresa May chases it | Simon Jenkins

Instead of returning to the Irish border, the prime minister should be opening up the debate beyond a minority of hardline Tories

Theresa May’s Irish backstop is Donald Trump’s wall. It is the howl of power thwarted by the implacable opposition of a democratic assembly. The prime minister today again sets her face against MPs who are now desperately searching for a parliamentary consensus on how to leave the EU.

She will plead with her Tory right wing – which is what it is – to support a suppos...