Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 77

Corbyn is right: of course Manchester was linked to British foreign policy | Simon Jenkins

We committed armed aggression against sovereign peoples who had not attacked us, claiming our motive was ‘to keep terror off the streets of Britain’

Jeremy Corbyn is perfectly right to relate this week’s Manchester terrorist atrocity to British foreign policy in the Middle East. Whenever Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron struggled to explain why British blood and finance had to go on toppling regimes in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, they were explicit: it was “to prevent terrorism in t...

Enough of Theresa May’s outrage. We need a tough response to terror | Simon Jenkins

The prime minister is playing into the hands of terrorists by politicising the Manchester attack. Her job is to allay public anxiety, not promote it

What public purpose is served by the prime minister declaring she has raised Britain’s “threat level” to “critical”? Before she thought another terrorist attack was “highly likely”. It is now “expected immediately”.

What are we supposed to do with this information, other than feel vaguely alarmed? The words can have meaning only in the wa...

What did the first TV leaders’ debate reveal? Toryism’s useful idiots | Simon Jenkins

May and Corbyn were not there, but they were represented. For the Tories, it was a bonanza – with four left-of-centre parties all out to take votes from Labour

It is not true that Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May were not present at last night’s minority party debate on television. They were not there in person, but they were well represented by those who were.

A grand fiction of British general elections is that they are multi-party affairs. Since the dawn of the universal franchise they have bee...

Why the Oxford stabbing student really is too talented for jail | Simon Jenkins

The scandal is not that Lavinia Woodwarde could be spared prison for stabbing her boyfriend. It is that so many others are denied the same understanding

The way to stay out of prison in today’s Britain is to go to Oxford University. Christ Church college undergraduate Lavinia Woodward, 24, dosed on drugs, punched her boyfriend in the face, stabbed him with a bread knife, hurled a laptop at him, then followed up with a glass and a jam jar. They do nothing by halves at Christ Church.

Her defence...

To jail Lavinia Woodward would have ruined her prospects for no purpose | Simon Jenkins

The scandal is not that the Oxford student was spared prison for stabbing her boyfriend. It is that so many others are denied the same understanding

The way to stay out of prison in today’s Britain is to go to Oxford University. Christ Church college undergraduate Lavinia Woodward, 24, dosed on drugs, punched her boyfriend in the face, stabbed him with a bread knife, hurled a laptop at him, then followed up with a glass and a jam jar. They do nothing by halves at Christ Church.

Her defence coun...

Mice benefit from research into cannabis. Why not us? | Simon Jenkins

Instead of forging ahead with research on the benefits of cannabis, the UK criminalises millions

Reports in Tuesday’s Guardian were little short of sensational. Cannabis use dramatically improves memory capacity in older brains. German research suggests that small doses of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) produced “profound, long-lasting improvement in cognitive performance”.

The results indicated that this could possibly stave off dementia for five to 10 years, the reverse of the impact cannabi...

Ukip got what it wanted. Time to disband | Simon Jenkins

This single-issue party has been snuffed out by a combination of Brexit and an intransigent Theresa May – who now picks up its legacy

Today’s local election results have been terrible for Labour, but they have been terminal for Ukip. It appears to have lost every seat it has fought, even in its heartlands of Lincolnshire and Essex. On results so far, its poll share has fallen from 22% to little more than 3%.

The reason is obvious. The party that mutated from the Referendum party in 1997 was a c...

Jeremy Corbyn should do a Bernie Sanders, and go for broke | Simon Jenkins

The Labour leader has nothing to lose but the Blairite retreads who urge caution. Now is the time for him to reveal the passions that drive his politics

Let Corbyn be Corbyn. Just now, he is painful to watch. Pretending to be the next prime minister does not work, nor even pretending to be Labour leader. Watching Jeremy Corbyn as “not Theresa May” is Michael Foot for slow learners.

Two weeks ago Corbyn gave a storming opening speech to his London faithful in Church House, Westminster. It was pu...

Could Trump’s diplomacy resolve his North Korea crisis? There’s hope | Simon Jenkins

The threat of conflict is no property negotiation, but the president is conducting it with all his skills as a dealer, craving the eventual shake of the hand

So Kim Jong-un is just a 27-year-old millennial for whom it must have been “very hard” to lead his country at such an age. His ally, China’s president Xi Jinping, is a “very good man who I got to know really well and loves his country”. He is trying hard to resolve the “very difficult” Korean crisis. Of course Xi “doesn’t want to see turm...

Hipsters, heritage and housing – how cities can escape London’s shadow | Simon Jenkins

The mayors about to be elected in Birmingham and Manchester must use ‘soft power’ to get their regions on the map

Now it is Birmingham’s turn. After two years in which Manchester has hogged the headlines as England’s “second city”, Birmingham is out to reclaim what was once its title. Next Thursday, both cities and four others are choosing elected mayors in what is billed as a rehearsal for the 8 June general election. The vote is also a chapter in the devolution of Britain, and in Theresa May...