Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 84

A total ban on ivory would be disastrous for elephants. Better to legalise it | Simon Jenkins

Allowing African farmers to profit from ivory in a carefully controlled market would give them an incentive to conserve wildlife

The iron law of the market is that you do not stifle demand by trying to stifle supply. It applies to drugs. It applies to alcohol. It applies to sex. It applies to ivory. For a generation, an international bureaucracy of UN officials and NGOs has been trying to stamp out ivory supply in Africa, much as it has been trying to stamp out cocaine supply in Latin America....

Donald Trump on terror is just McCarthyism for a new age | Simon Jenkins

While the Republican’s responses are hysterical, they fit with an American tradition of exploiting existential fear

The Republican candidate for the presidency, Donald Trump, now reacts to any terrorist incident with crude cynicism. While the incessant killings of Americans by Americans prove only that America needs more guns, a failed killing by an American Muslim is “a terrible thing that is going on in our country … an attack on America”.

Related: After the New York bomb...

Ukip’s work is done – the party should respect its victory and disband

As its conference opens, signs of purposelessness are evident as Theresa May ploughs ahead with Brexit plans and cutting immigration

When Nigel Farage set up Ukip it was to campaign for an EU referendum. I asked him at the time what he would do if he got one. He said he would try to win it. And what would he do if he won, or if he lost? Either way, he said, his job would be done. He would go down to the pub. Farage has been as good as his word.

Ukip was no more than Farage’s vehicle. It was not...

Our leaders are hooked on the narcotic of glory. That’s why we rush to war | Simon Jenkins

Like Blair’s folly in Iraq, Cameron’s Libyan adventure was driven by a reckless craving for personal ‘victory’. National security had nothing to do with it

Going to war is too easy, far too easy. That is the one clear message from the Commons report on David Cameron’s 2011 war on Libya. It presents that venture as an ill-conceived vanity project, to dust the ingenu prime minister with some “Arab spring” glory. In reality it brought untold misery to a country to which Cameron promised peac...

Sanctions against North Korea have failed. End them now | Simon Jenkins

As the latest nuclear test shows, economic embargos are counterproductive. Bullying will not bring change, but trade and cultural exchange just might

The latest nuclear test by North Korea proves that economic sanctions against the regime have failed utterly. So how is the west proposing to react? It is debating how to extend sanctions.

Embargos of increasing ferocity have been imposed on North Korea since 1992. While they were undermined by Beijing, they ostracised Pyongyang from the outside w...

Thatcher knew grammars were poison. Theresa May is playing a risky game | Simon Jenkins

The Tories need to stop obsessing about selective education. Going backwards is not an option

Every few years Tory leaders have a nostalgic dream. It might be of a rerun of the British empire or a return to conscription or just Listen with Mother. But now Theresa May is hearing the old refrain, “Bring back the grammars.” The dream could become nightmare, unless she asks herself a simple question. Why did Margaret Thatcher never, in over a decade, rescind Labour’s 1965 edict introduci...

Theresa May’s £3,150 lunch shows that democracy is still for sale | Simon Jenkins

The prime minister is allowing lobbyists to lunch with her at her party conference – for a fee. So much for her commitment to battling inequality

When Theresa May took office in July, she declared an assault on inequality and an end to privilege in politics. Today she is flogging lunch with herself at her party conference for 3,150. We can assume the price does not reflect the food.

Related: Lobbying looms over Theresa May’s government. She must tackle it now | Tamasin Cave

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It’s a hard sell, but in post-Brexit Britain optimism must become a strategy | Simon Jenkins

Now Project Fear has been shown to be exaggerated, Brexiters must tone down their pessimistic rhetoric too. It’s time to focus on the facts

If I had my way, the new year would start tomorrow. After the purgatory of August as the nation’s holiday, autumnal September is when we return to work, supposedly regenerated. Plans, budgets, accounts and the statistical year should begin then. September, not cheerless January, should be the month of new resolutions.

September is my month for optimism. Las...

Outside meddling has unleashed horror in Syria. We must step back | Simon Jenkins

Western arms and money have prolonged and intensified this civil war. Our only duties are to stop taking sides, and to help those fleeing the conflict

Today’s news that the American secretary of state, John Kerry, and the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, are in Geneva to discuss ending the war in Syria should raise everyone’s spirits. Why does it not do so?

The answer is that these and other outside powers have tried this often before and failed. They have failed in large part because e...

From Timbuktu to Grimsby, heritage deserves to be revered and restored | Simon Jenkins

Historic buildings possess a cultural vitality. Failing to repair them is a loss to our communal memory

If you demolish a historic building in Timbuktu you commit a war crime. If you demolish one in Britain you apply for retrospective planning permission. What is the difference?

The decision of the international court in The Hague this week to prosecute a former al-Qaida insurgent, Ahmad al-Mahdi, for destroying nine ancient tombs in Mali is deeply significant. For the first time, the concept o...