Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 80

The banana republic of Surrey has shown local council funding is broken | Simon Jenkins

If Surrey’s ‘secret deal’ is to be a harbinger of a new health and care service then the whole murky world of local government funding needs rethinking

The algebra is simple. The NHS is having another terrible winter. It does not collapse, but “spills demand” on to the next line of defence, local government welfare. But while the NHS gets more money annually from the Treasury, local government gets less, some 30% less since 2011. It cannot cope with the new pressure.

The equation resolves itsel...

People who’ve fallen through the net won’t get a home from Sajid Javid | Simon Jenkins

The secretary of state for community’s plan is ill-conceived. Public money should switch to social housing – to need, and not demand

This week’s housing white paper is nothing of the sort. It is a stew of fake news, old cliches and pretend solutions. The communities secretary, Sajid Javid, says the “housing market is broken”, parroting his predecessor, Eric Pickles, who claimed to have mended it. Javid’s policy tosses in the old saw that “Britain needs to build 245,000 new houses a year to mee...

Don’t let philistine developers wreck our urban heritage | Simon Jenkins

There’s no point having conservation areas if they are not conserved. The government’s ruling on Paddington cube will be pivotal

fSajid Javid, the communities secretary, must decide this week whether to call in one of the most critical decisions in urban planning. Westminster city council wants to allow a “starchitect”, Renzo Piano, to erect a 19-storey glass cube in a conservation area directly overlooking Paddington station.

The cube is supposedly an alternative to the 72-storey Paddington po...

Why the EU’s fuss over Trump’s ambassador pick? He’s perfectly cast | Simon Jenkins

The European parliament is outraged at Trump’s choice of ambassador to the EU, Ted Malloch. It’d be better off treating him as a challenge to win over

If there is one thing that unites the European Union’s establishment it is an aversion to attacks on its power and privilege. Hence the European parliament’s response to the “outrageous malevolence” of Donald Trump’s choice of US ambassador to the EU, Ted Malloch. All the major political groups apparently want him declared persona non grata.

Rel...

We’re over the digital revolution. This is the age of experience | Simon Jenkins

The web has upended all our lives. The return of books, vinyl and Kodak film shows we long to employ technology as a servant, not a master

Stepping outside the bubble of gloom this week I noticed something surreal. Kodak was reviving its Ektachrome film range to meet a surging demand for high-end traditional film. Was this the same Kodak, I wondered, that went bankrupt in 2012 after 47,000 job losses, a moment hailed by seers as when the digital revolution finally came of age? It now appe...

Three cheers for the Theresa May doctrine | Simon Jenkins

The PM’s foreign policy speech in the US is an outbreak of common sense. But she and Donald Trump must also articulate a coherent alternative to belligerence

Even the darkest clouds can have silver linings. Theresa May’s words on landing yesterday in America could not be clearer: “The days of Britain and America intervening in sovereign countries in an attempt to remake the world in our own image are over.”

True, May felt obliged to incant the fake chumminess of all British prime ministers sett...

Post-truth politics will be debunked by online facts | Simon Jenkins

Donald Trump’s lies are part of a long tradition of political mendacity that holds far fewer fears in the age of digital media

The new American president, Donald Trump, celebrated his first day in office with a barefaced lie. He said that his inauguration crowd was bigger than Barack Obama’s. As lies go it was no big deal, but it was still a lie. Within minutes, camera technology and social media had reduced Trump’s boast to ruins. His supporters briefly resorted to “alternative facts”, but ra...

Banks are moving workers, inflation is up. Project Fear is coming true | Simon Jenkins

This week two big banks, HSBC and UBS, honoured their threats about moving jobs from the UK. The grim reality is ‘hard’ Brexit will be tough for many of us

The tumult and the shouting dies. From hysterical prediction slowly emerges the grim reality. Now the prospect comes into view that the remainers’ Project Fear might just have been true after all. They just got the timing wrong.

Related: Goldman Sachs stalls plan to move jobs to UK amid Brexit uncertainty

Related: Is the City of London goi...

This is Brexit poker - and Theresa May was right to up the stakes | Simon Jenkins

It was strategically sensible to begin the skirmishes in uncompromising mood. The inevitable compromises will come later

The siege of Harfleur was a disaster for the English. Henry V was humiliated and had to abandon his march on Paris, turning instead to confront the French cavalry at Agincourt. Here he faced overwhelming odds but decided to rely on bluff, cunning and Welsh archers to rescue a shred of glory from his European venture.

Theresa May must hope she is somewhere between Ha...

Poorer men are being driven out of full-time work. Here’s why | Simon Jenkins

The south-east booms while other regions stagnate, and low-paid, part-time jobs proliferate – a smarter safety net is needed to remedy growing imbalances

The latest figures for employment are as good as they are bad – and as intriguing. Unemployment continues to fall, now below 5%, a level not seen since before the 1970s recession. The Office for National Statistics has announced that average pay rose last year by 2.4%. Even the pay gap fell. “Income for the poorest fifth was up 5% and for the...