Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 84

There is one sure way to save our ailing churches – give them away | Simon Jenkins

As desanctified, secularised buildings owned by the community or local trusts, ailing churches may just survive

There is no way it looks good. Two thousand medieval churches in England have fewer than 10 worshippers, and 8,000 more can barely muster 20. More Muslims go to mosques than Anglicans go to church. Yet almost all are listed as historic. These lovely buildings are simply emptying. Doors are locked. Grass grows in churchyards.

More than 900 churches are now on the English Heritage...

Theresa May has the party’s adoration for now. That won’t last | Simon Jenkins

The prime minister has crushed the Cameroons. But sidelined Tory remainers won’t be silenced for long

Theresa May’s task as prime minister is simple. The good ship Brexit has left harbour. Storms of unknown ferocity lie ahead. Hatches must be battened and crew encouraged. The Tory faithful, pro-Brexit but suspicious of endless backsliding by their leaders, need reassuring. Nothing else of substance matters, only reassurance.

Related: Will Theresa May’s speech appeal beyond Tory conference? Our...

Dismantle the child abuse inquiry and focus on learning lessons for the future | Simon Jenkins

There is rightly sympathy for those who suffered in the past, but resources need to be put into child protection for today’s needs and tomorrow’s victims

The inquiry into historical sex abuse of children was never fit for purpose and should be dismantled. Something may then be salvaged from the wreck. Like too many inquiries into past history, it was flawed from the start. The reason is that it confused two separate issues, a public interest in the failings of public administration, and a desi...

As long as greed governs global sport, corruption will be endemic | Simon Jenkins

Everyone in football knew what Sam Allardyce was talking about. His biggest crime was to embarrass the FA

Where there’s brass there’s muck, and where there’s muck there is usually a rake. The Daily Telegraph’s exposure of England’s football boss, Sam Allardyce, was just about fair within journalism’s code of conduct. There was prima facie suspicion of wrongdoing and no other way of securing evidence.

Related: Britain is no paragon of sporting virtue – let’s stop pretending otherwise | Mary Dej...

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...