Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 61

Theresa May must form a one-issue coalition to resolve this Brexit mess | Simon Jenkins

The Tories never forgave Robert Peel for seeking opposition support in 1846, but the episode provides a lesson for this prime minister

Of all human reflexes, jingoism is the most dangerous. It was evident in the hysteria of Tuesday’s Commons vote on Theresa May’s deal. Neither MPs nor the crowds outside had any alternative to offer, so they just shouted: “How does Brussels dare?” We have been in this mess before: I can just remember Suez. My father, who opposed the intervention and hated Antho...

MPs are lying to voters – there is no alternative to May’s Brexit deal | Simon Jenkins

MPs must vote for the deal on Tuesday. It’s the only way to move forward in a realistic fashion

Parliament is about to lie to those who elected it two years ago. It is about to pretend that there is a better way of leaving the EU than is outlined in Theresa May’s deal. It knows there is not. If it votes down May’s deal, it will lie.

Related: May makes last-ditch bid to win over Commons to Brexit deal

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Cutting tuition fees will turn universities into vassals of the state | Simon Jenkins

Lowering the cost of degrees will devastate university budgets. The state will bail them out – in exchange for more control

Meanwhile, back at the ranch – or in this case the campus – the mice are running riot. Ignored by Brexit, Britain’s universities are facing financial meltdown. I predict that within a decade they will become institutions wholly owned by the state, their academic autonomy unrecognisable.

A few weeks ago, three universities were reported to be on the brink of bankruptcy. Uni...

No more tribal politics: MPs must be allowed a free vote on Brexit | Simon Jenkins

With the clock ticking, the choice is clear: May’s deal or no deal. MPs should decide individually what is best for the nation

Has anything changed over the holiday? Yes: 29 March is two weeks nearer. Like the imminence of death, it concentrates the mind.

Related: ‘Managed no deal’? That’s just more Brexit snake oil | Anand Menon

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Donald Trump has a point – the world should start solving its own problems | Simon Jenkins

For all his antics on the Mexican border, the US president is right to be withdrawing troops from Syria

For a Briton to spend time in the US just now is a blessed relief. Whole days pass, and no talk of Brexit. It is as if a pall has lifted from the art of conversation. But the US has its own deep divide, slashing through the populist body politic. It is Donald Trump and “America first”.

Trump has become a phenomenon. Like Samson in the temple, he seems able to topple the entire edifice of poli...

How to save our high streets? The answer is in the church | Simon Jenkins

Abandoned churches are slowly being reinvented as secular meeting places as the experience economy continues to grow

I have just had my first Alexa experience. It was in Los Angeles and it was eerie and rather charming. There is no doubt “she” vastly simplifies a range of trivial tasks. To the lonely, she is apparently comforting, like a pet, and with “empathy” increasingly built in, is growing ever more so. But she is clearly driving a nail ever further into the coffin of the classic concept...

Crossrail reveals the depth of Britain’s north-south divide | Simon Jenkins

Billions more have just been announced for the delayed London rail line - yet northern infrastructure projects are killed off

It’s been a great week to bury bad government. Two of the greatest infrastructure projects in the land hit financial grief. Normally it would have been headline news. Instead no one shows the slightest interest. The Department for Transport has long had a simple agenda. A cynic might sum it up as: give London anything it wants, but starve the north of investment until i...

France’s political crises are always played out in riots – unlike Britain’s | Simon Jenkins

It’s the latest alternative ‘project fear’ from hard Brexiters – unrest in the event of a parliamentary impasse. But it’s unlikely

Could France happen here? There seems no desperation to which hard Brexiters will not turn in alternative “project fear”. Yes, feelings are running high. Yes, people on both sides will feel lied to and cheated, whatever the outcome when some deal is finally reached. But rioting down Regent Street, punch-ups in Parliament Square, tanks on the Thames bridges? I think...

Our warring MPs should realise all Brexit roads lead to Norway | Simon Jenkins

It’s increasingly clear there is only one deal that can be done. It may not be ideal, but it is workable

From the moment Britain voted for Brexit in 2016, there was only one way to go. It was back to the European Free Trade Association (Efta), of which the UK was a member before 1973. Nothing else made sense. As a Eurosceptic, I voted to remain only because I thought it wrong for Britain to leave Europe’s one conclave of nations just when it was growing seriously unstable. The vote to leave ha...

The government’s defeat on contempt was humiliating – but avoidable | Simon Jenkins

The Commons’ Brexit vote result shows a major weakness in the Conservative party’s loyalty department

Now it’s the lawyers’ turn. Like picadors, they are entering the ring to soften up Theresa May’s deal, before parliament’s serious matadors get to work. They are poking and stabbing and drawing blood. The Commons has ordered the attorney general’s advice to be published in full, against the prime minister’s wishes, and this will be done immediately. At the same time, the European court of just...