Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 72

The Irish border problem is the ultimate barrier to hard Brexit | Simon Jenkins

Any sort of border in Ireland, whether physical or regulatory, is politically impossible and publicly unpopular. That’s bad news for hard Brexiteers

Is Northern Ireland the first crack in the dam? There is no solution to hard Brexit along the Irish border. Negotiators have been chasing this will-o-the-wisp for over a year. They have not found it because it does not exist. A border is a border, it is not “not-a-border”. It means barriers, checks, queues, papers, regulations, tariffs. No one wan...

Europe needs a leader. Who will step up if Merkel goes? | Simon Jenkins

The German leader’s departure could bring crisis to the EU. Britain could have helped if it hadn’t jumped ship

Suddenly Brexit matters, a lot. Until recently I had regarded it as one of those crises that we muddle through somehow, like the bank collapse or the winter of discontent. Time is the great compromiser. Project fear would turn out to be project not-quite-as-bad-as-we-thought.

Related: What does Germany’s political crisis mean for Brexit? | Martin Kettle

Related: Merkel hints fresh el...

Blaming baby boomers won’t put roofs over young people’s heads, Sajid | Simon Jenkins

He’s taken sides with millennials, in a debate that has become about avocados. If he wanted to solve the housing ‘crisis’ he would boost social housing

If in doubt, blame someone else. Sajid Javid’s solution to the “housing crisis” is to accuse the baby-boomer bourgeoisie of south-east England of antagonising “avocado-eating millennials”. He says the baby boomers are impeding new houses in the countryside and rendering his Tory-deserting millennials “rootless and resentful of both capitalism a...

May needed to master the new politics that Brexit demands. But she’s failed | Simon Jenkins

Britain needed a prime minister to fight for what the public truly wants. Instead, she has driven all sides to extremes

Bastards, mutineers, saboteurs, enemies of the people. As the Brexit debate approaches climax, it is running short of terms of abuse. It reverts to the language politics knows best, of the bully in the playground. But this gives it a problem. Today’s bastards are not the Brexiters of old: they are yesterday’s moderates and pragmatists. Yesterday’s wildcats of hard Brexit have...

May must pay up and clear out the Brexit rebels. All else is madness | Simon Jenkins

Hardcore Brexiteers are in the minority – the prime minister must stand up to them. Talk of ‘no deal’ is illiterate, playing politics with other people’s lives

Why does Theresa May keep telling us what we already know? She says she will not “tolerate” Brexit backsliding from rebel remainer MPs. What we actually want to know she’s not tolerating is a much smaller group of flat-Earth rebels backsliding from a sensible Brexit. It is that madness she cannot fudge.

Related: Get Brexit deal fast, bu...

No more remembrance days – let’s consign the 20th century to history | Simon Jenkins

Almost all the conflicts in the world are caused by too much remembering: Britain should stop wallowing in past traumas and move on

Enough of Remembrance Day. This weekend’s memorial to “the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month” has become a synthetic festival whose time has passed. The wars of the 20th century are beyond the experience of the overwhelming majority of Britons. The composite of the Last Post, “lest we forget” and Oh! What a Lovely War is impregnated with enmity, atonemen...

Catalonia isn’t just Spain’s nightmare – it is Europe’s | Simon Jenkins

With Basques, Bretons, Bavarians and many more eyeing the outcome of events, could this be the moment to formalise various levels of autonomy?

The EU countries may be right that Catalonia is legally a matter of Spanish constitutional law. But they should also be frightened. Catalonia is Europe’s problem.

The imprisonment on remand of eight Catalan politicians, on blatantly political charges, and the Belgian asylum sought by its president, appears to be an engineered confrontation.

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Donald Trump’s reaction to terror? To make America terrified again | Simon Jenkins

The president promises further immigration controls, but there was no hint of ‘extreme vetting’ for gun-owners in the wake of the Las Vegas massacre

Drive a truck down a New York street and knock people down, and you’re “a sick and deranged person”. But what if you drive a truck down a New York street, knock people down and shout, “Allahu Akbar”? You are a Muslim terrorist, a global news story and a threat to the security of nations. You drive a president to “extreme vettin...

Catalonia’s independence movement is not just a problem for Spain | Simon Jenkins

Aversion to centralised power is destabilising states across Europe. The EU ignores this growing desire for regional autonomy at its own risk

Catalonia is wrong. Madrid is right. There is a Spanish constitution which clearly lays down the sovereignty and integrity of the Spanish state. There is no provision for breaking away. Catalonia, despite its distinctive past, has long acquiesced in the Spanish constitution and has no legal right to become independent. On that point the law is clear.

Rel...

Enough moaning about Brexit: remainers must say what they’re for | Simon Jenkins

Leaving is inevitable but doesn’t need to be chaos, whatever Michael Bloomberg says. We need a concerted lobby for a soft Brexit

It was the best of decisions, it was the worst of decisions. It was the season of light, it was the season of darkness … the hope of spring, the winter of despair. Dickens had Brexit about right. It is Britain’s French revolution. No one, absolutely no one, has a clue how it will turn out.

London’s new inward investor, the former New York mayor Mic...