Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 67

How not to revive a northern British city: relocate Channel 4 there | Simon Jenkins

This is a fairy godmother approach to narrowing the north-south divide. In fact it’s universities that hold the magic wand

There is nothing more gauche than Whitehall “being nice” to the provinces. Its attempt to force Channel 4 to move north from London has felt akin to the Victorian church sending missionaries overseas to civilise the heathen. As austerity descends over museums and theatres across the land, the culture department wants to dispatch a few television executives to live amo...

Skyscrapers wreck cities – yet still Britain builds them | Simon Jenkins

Around 500 towers are proposed for London. They’re not just ugly: they symbolise Britain’s greedy pandering to developers

I love towers and hate towers. I love those of Siena and San Gimignano and the skyscraper clusters of Manhattan and Dubai. I admire the design of London’s Canary Wharf, and of the Shard, if only it had not been dumped on Bermondsey. I do not love the ugliness now being scattered at random along the banks of the Thames or the squalor of London’s skyline. As art historia...

As a feminist, why should Meghan settle for being a dutiful royal wife? | Simon Jenkins

The Duchess of Sussex has been described as a ‘political animal’. Could we see her in the White House one day?

So much for chapter one, a glorious display of British romantic ceremonial at its best. Now for chapter two. I predict that this will not be about the obvious “mixed marriage”, but about a different one. This is between a Briton and an American, and between two people with starkly different career trajectories.

Related: Michael Curry’s royal wedding sermon will go down in history | Di...

I’m a libertarian, but still I say betting curbs are long overdue | Simon Jenkins

Fixed-odds betting terminals are gambling’s answer to crack cocaine. But online betting is even worse

• Maximum stake for fixed-odds betting terminals cut to £2

The most cynical sign I know hangs in my local betting shop. It reads, “When the fun stops, stop.” The sign is sponsored by a consortium of William Hill, Ladbrokes Coral and Paddy Power, and is meant to imply their “awareness” of gambling addiction. What it really means is: when the fun stops, profit starts. It reminds me of the d...

David Miliband is back – and mapping the only sane path towards Brexit | Simon Jenkins

Theresa May must show some guts – and join the former Labour MP in calling for membership of the European Economic Area

When David Miliband fled to New York to run the International Rescue Committee, he cannot have imagined his old country would be most in need of his services. Britain now needs all the help it can get, even from superannuated expatriate politicians. By the autumn the government will have had to choose between the devil of a messy but feasible hotchpotch of soft Brexit and the...

The couple who teach us to talk across the political divide | Simon Jenkins

They are from opposite ends of the political spectrum, but they are happily married because they obey the oldest rule of politics – courtesy

Caroline Sommerfeld is very right wing. Helmut Lethen is very left wing. Both are German academic writers. She regards him as fixated on hating Nazis. He regards her as a racist bigot. They are in the news because they love one another and are happily married.

Related: Fining universities for no-platforming denies the idea of academic freedom | Simon Jenk...

The Quakers are right. We don’t need God | Simon Jenkins

The group is considering dropping God from its meetings guidance as it makes some feel uncomfortable. This is the new religiosity

The Quakers are clearly on to something. At their annual get-together this weekend they are reportedly thinking of dropping God from their “guidance to meetings”. The reason, said one of them, is because the term “makes some Quakers feel uncomfortable”. Atheists, according to a Birmingham University academic, comprise a rising 14% of professed Quakers, while a full...

Could Bradford be the Shoreditch of Yorkshire – or is it the next Detroit?

High levels of unemployment and poverty mean Bradford is often dubbed Britain’s most struggling city – can local developers kickstart its revival?

I first fell in love with a long lost Bradford. The city I worked in briefly in my youth still had mills towering over its hillsides and tycoon mansions lining Manningham Lane. The centre was a tight group of Victorian palaces and wool warehouses. It could just echo TS Eliot’s assurance, sitting “like a silk hat on a Bradford millionaire”. There wer...

May has cost Rudd her job – but we haven’t seen the last of her | Simon Jenkins

The next home secretary must end the obsession with removals and the Home Office’s unethical behaviour must be investigated

The Home Office has long been the valley of the shadow of death. Even Amber Rudd’s ability and closeness to Theresa May could not protect her from a policy that her prime minister had insisted she enforce and defend. By Sunday night, the only victor was the English language. “We don’t have targets for removals” crashed head-on into “a target of achieving 12,800 enforced r...

Will we stand by and watch the privatisation of our forests? | Simon Jenkins

The Forestry Commission is party to semi-commercial development that could be devastating for our countryside. It should know better

There is something murky down in the forest. In 2010, the Cameron government was so shocked at the reaction to its planned privatisation of the Forestry Commission that it backed off. It said it had abandoned the whole idea. It lied. It just privatised in secret.

Plans have emerged of the commission’s proposals for Mortimer Forest outside Ludlow, an exquisite stre...