Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 83

Rebuilding Nimrud will help atone for the sins of the west | Simon Jenkins

The tragedy in Iraq results from our imposition of western values. It is our duty to make amends

The destruction of the Assyrian city of Nimrud is a catastrophe for Iraq and for our shared cultural history. Peoples come and go, drifting in the mists of time. These relics were the rocks of ages. The bulldozing by Islamic State of Nineveh, the flattening of Hatra, the demolition in Raqqa and now the destruction of Nimrud wipe from the map what were the great precursor cities of the European era....

The revolution in cannabis law has begun, but Britain is stuck in the past | Simon Jenkins

From California to the Baltic, the dam is breaking. Meanwhile, the British government sticks to its ‘war on drugs’, and pays the heavy price

How did the world change on 8 November 2016? No, it was not the election of Donald Trump. It was the passage of California’s proposition 64, removing legal controls on the production and sale of marijuana.

A quarter of Americans will now be able to buy cannabis legally, from California to Massachusetts, from Florida to Colorado. It is inconceivable that a...

Be calm: Trump is not the worst and won’t go unchallenged | Simon Jenkins

The Republican candidate won as the outsider who was going to shake Washington up – now comes the reality

Did he really mean it? The mushroom cloud that has risen over American democracy is a question mark. Did Donald Trump mean the hatred, the belligerence, the racism, the boasting and the lies? Was his witches’ Sabbath of a campaign all a gigantic act, a ritual wallow in mud before the cleansing douche of the ballot? Is a man so incapable of courtesy and human kindness remotely suitable to l...

The judges’ ruling confirms it – Brexit must go ahead, no ifs or buts | Simon Jenkins

The legal ruling may complicate the UK leaving the EU, but the referendum result was clear. And woe betide the MP or peer who stands in the way of it

So Brexit must be legal. The morning after the night before, most people seem to think yesterday’s court ruling on Brexit means a mess. It does not. The way forward is crystal clear.

High court judges may be secretive, unelected toffs, but these three are right: referendums are not material parts of the British constitution. Parliament, warts and...

Amber Rudd was right to leave Orgreave in the past | Simon Jenkins

Most public inquiries waste time and money. The proper place to debate public policy is parliament

Those who can’t rule today try to rule yesterday. This week’s demand by Labour’s Andy Burnham for a show trial of police tactics at the battle of Orgreave, 32 years ago, was a piece of pure politics. His rebuff by the home secretary, Amber Rudd, was proportionate and wholly reasonable.

We know what happened at Orgreave. The police reaction to the miners’ union picketing was excessiv...

Nissan got a sweetheart deal. Under hard Brexit, everyone will want one | Simon Jenkins

Britain has to trade openly with Europe, and vice versa. A soft Brexit is the only way to do that, and avoid a race to the bottom

Welcome to the wonderful world of Brexit PLC: a nod here, a wink there, something under the counter and “I-don’t-mind-if-I-do”. No one knows, yet, what a government minister or official said to the Japanese company Nissan, to secure a massive new investment in Britain’s biggest car plant in Sunderland. We can only be sure it is neither the first nor the last.

As Ther...

The lesson from tiny Wallonia – there is a way to prevent hard Brexit | Simon Jenkins

The Belgian region forced a giant EU scheme to unravel. Given the chance, Wales and Scotland could do the same

The fury subsides. The wounds heal. But as the trumpets and the drums depart, the same Brexit squabbles live on. What do we mean to do, really, about immigration, protectionism, sovereignty and trade?

Cut to Wallonia, a desperate corner of Europe. Its collapsed heavy industry lies ruined in a hilly landscape. Its politics are equally outdated, socialists battling Marxists. Yet Wallonia...

Kicking Philip Green is absurd. Here’s who MPs should be castigating | Simon Jenkins

The Commons wants to remove the former BHS boss’s knighthood, but what is it doing about the company’s chairman, former owner, accountants – and HMRC?

The House of Commons is never more absurd than when kicking a man when he is down. Sir Philip Green is finished, one of the most unpopular men in Britain, barely safe even on his own yacht. Indulged, pampered and praised for decades, his life’s work is in ruins. And all MPs can do is call him “a spiv” and vote to strip him of his knighthood, whi...

Stop obsessing about planes and trains, and start using roads better | Simon Jenkins

Ministers are dazzled by the idea of a third Heathrow runway and HS2. If only they were as excited about car travel

Infrastructure is the new kale. It is the latest fad on the block. Every politician wants more of it. To Labour and Tory, TUC and CBI, infrastructure is the acceptable face of borrowing and spending. All will be well if we just pour billions into concrete. But for what?

Related: HS2: the zombie train that refuses to die | Simon Jenkins

I am told that half the trucks on the M1 are...

Hinkley, HS2 and Heathrow show May’s team are out of their depth | Simon Jenkins

These three white elephants will waste 100bn of public money. Such a cave-in to the lobbyists gives a worrying insight into those close to the prime minister

When David Cameron departed Downing Street, he left three white elephants grazing the Whitehall grasslands. They had been awaiting their fate for years, kept going with fodder slipped them by their kindly keeper, George Osborne. Cameron never made up his mind what to do with them and so left them to his successor. Their names were Hinkley...