Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 7

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...

Bankrupt and ravaged by student mental illness, Britain’s universities are badly in need of reform | Simon Jenkins

Tough questions need to be asked of these institutions, starting with: are they really the right place for so many young people?

Forget the NHS for a minute – and look to Britain’s universities, another institution in urgent need of fixing. A number are on the brink of bankruptcy or closure. Revenues are plummeting. Rich foreign students are vanishing. Jobs for graduates are falling and mental illness among students has reportedly multiplied by seven times in the past decade. The result is that i...

This winter fuel fiasco will save Labour £1.3bn this year. But it will cost Starmer more | Simon Jenkins

The PM’s poor approval rating suggests a tricky road ahead, and the Treasury’s macho posturing won’t help anyone

Should the pensioners’ winter fuel allowance be cut? For most people it’s a simple question, though most people’s opinion is of no account. For 404 Labour MPs, however, it is indeed of account. They get to vote on it.

Yet up to 50 are said to be struggling, with dozens being persuaded by their whips merely to abstain rather than vote against. What is the point? With a majority of 158, a...

Want justice for the victims of Grenfell? It’s now clearer than ever that public inquiries are not the answer | Simon Jenkins

Too much time and money is wasted on these buck-passing exercises, which only allow politicians and regulators off the hook

What is justice for Grenfell? After seven years of public inquiry we have a 1,700-page report and a cost of more than £200m. We have had investigations, books, plays and more than £100m spent on an ongoing police investigation.

Yet so far we have no closure, no prosecutions and no convictions. The word ‘“justice” does not appear in the recommendations of this week’s Moore-Bic...

What Blair can teach Starmer: pick your battles early, and surround yourself with experts | Simon Jenkins

The prime minister may not want a picture of Thatcher at No 10, but he could learn from his predecessors – and their mistakes

What can Keir Starmer learn from Tony Blair? He hit the ground running in handling last month’s rightwing riots over immigration. He rolled the pitch for Rachel Reeves’s first budget. He initiated a post-Brexit era with Germany. It looked good. Starmer’s watchword was “change”. Yet he could not face seeing Margaret Thatcher’s portrait in Downing Street, the one predecessor...