Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 70

Diesel is dying – let steam trains ride to the rescue | Simon Jenkins

The new rail minister wants to phase out diesel, and his predecessor hobbled electricity. That leaves one viable option

New ministers always go a little mad in the early days of the job. The new railways boss, Jo Johnson, will make a speech proposing to “phase out” all British diesel engines by 2040. He calls it an “aspiration”.

But diesel accounts for a third of all Britain’s trains. The only alternative form of traction is electricity, and Johnson’s ministerial predecessor postponed or abando...

We can leave the EU, but not Europe. Isolation is no longer splendid | Simon Jenkins

History cries out for Britain not to abandon free trade. Once this led to colonies – now the European single market is the only option

Give history a vote, I say. In politics the past is always wiser than the present, but no one speaks up for it. Sometimes we need it badly, like now. Britain’s exit from the EU echoes centuries of aversion to continental involvement. At issue is not leaving the EU, which we will do, but how – whether it makes sense to abandon half a century of partnership with...

A special tax to save the struggling NHS won’t work. Here’s why | Simon Jenkins

This idea distracts from what’s needed: a bipartisan royal commission to stop NHS money being wasted, then reform

A special NHS tax is a bad idea. The concept as put forward today by a group of health professionals is naive. First, it will not happen and is thus a distraction from getting more money for health. Second, if it were introduced, every good cause would want its own tax: housing, schools, student fees and the army. The Treasury would just slash existing spending on them.

That 10 seni...

The brave Brexit speech Theresa May is afraid to give? Here it is | Simon Jenkins

The Norway option, a customs union, a united front with Labour – this is the endgame she must risk her job to win

For fear of upsetting her cabinet, Theresa May has abandoned a major speech planned for next week that would have set out her intentions for the Brexit endgame. That is a risk she must take. Here is the speech she should be giving.

“I want to clearly set out where we stand on Brexit. Uncertainty has gone on too long. Businesses are desperate for guidance, and the country for leaders...

The Carillion pension bungle raises this question: where was the oversight? | Simon Jenkins

There’s something amiss when a firm £5bn in debt, owing almost £1bn to its pensioners, and with just £29m in the bank is given a clean bill of health

The stain of Carillion continues to spread – and smell. As desperate efforts are made to salvage the contracts and jobs of the bankrupt firm, the focus now turns on its pensioners, and on the “defined-benefits” schemes under the company’s umbrella. They cover 28,000 past and present workers.

Last year the directors, with the agreement of the pensi...

Boris Johnson’s Trump act struggles on the UK stage | Simon Jenkins

Appealing to voters over the head of his party on issues such as the NHS is a risky strategy that may cost him in the long run

As Theresa May gazes across the Alps at Donald Trump, she might do a double take, having just left behind her very own Trump for slow learners, Boris Johnson. On Tuesday she endured another display of Boris the Authentic. He played the NHS as part of playing Brexit, screwing the system and jumping off the cliff.

Don’t say this sort of thing doesn’t work. Donald is in t...

Britain already throws money at defence. Ignore this Russian red herring | Simon Jenkins

The fearmongering over cyber-warfare with Russia isn’t about actual threat, it’s about vanity, history and MoD greed

The Russians are coming. The terrorists are at the door. Feel afraid, feel very afraid. Give us the money.

Every year at budget time, the defence lobby waves shrouds and howls blue murder. With yet another defence review in the offing, the army fears it will lose thousands of soldiers, while the navy and the Royal Air Force fear the (long overdue) merger of the paratroop and mari...

Don’t fixate on a second Brexit vote. Focus instead on trade | Simon Jenkins

Of course it’s possible to change our minds in a democracy. But we have to be realistic about what can and can’t be achieved

They wander Westminster with staring eyes. “Repent,” they cry, “or be doomed. We are all doomed.” They are the second-referendum adventists, the priests of the afterthought, the prophets of the second coming. They meet with decrepit peers in cobwebbed attics. They mix potions and spells, and stick pins in plasticine Theresa Mays. They are mad. As mad as the flat-earth le...

I’m not surprised by Carillion’s failure – companies like this shouldn’t exist | Simon Jenkins

The company was too big and too reliant on state contracts to be a true private entity. Government and Whitehall share the blame for its collapse

No one ever lost money doing business with the government: it was too stupid and had too much money. So went the old saying. Carillion has just proved it wrong. Britain’s second biggest construction company and state contractor has gone into liquidation. Accountants must reallocate to other firms the billions of pounds in contracts for prisons, schoo...

We laugh at Russian propaganda. But Hollywood history is just as fake | Simon Jenkins

From Churchill to Getty, the trust we rely on to interpret the world is being corroded by an entertainment industry that has lost faith in fiction

She staggers on to the screen, blood streaming from her face. Some of her wounds are flesh ones, but others are deep. Nobody cares, because her performance is sensational. Her name is truth, and she has taken a terrible beating.

The new thriller All the Money in the World, based on the kidnap of John Paul Getty III in 1973, carries an announceme...