Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 87

Beware a boring Donald Trump. He’s more dangerous than a maverick one | Simon Jenkins

The presidential candidate’s outrageous traits are being toned down. It will damage his authenticity, but he might yet win

Donald Trump’s arrival in the UK, at a seminal moment in British history, may seem like Satan gatecrashing the Day of Judgment. But he is just opening a golf course. It’s a free country.

More intriguing is the gradual de-monsterising of Trump the phenomenon. The US media have seen him as an outrageous buffoon, a menace, an incipient tyrant, a creation of the fascist Tw...

Hatred is constrained in politics by formal safeguards. Social media has let it loose | Simon Jenkins

Jo Cox’s killing doesn’t show that order has broken down, but when social media turns antisocial, some policing regime is urgently needed

There are two griefs at the death of a public figure. One is at the loss of an individual. The other is dismay at the apparent collapse – we do not know for certain – of the protections that should discipline argument in a democracy.

No one knows the motive for the killing of Jo Cox. As in Orlando, the rush to judgment on the basis of initial witnesses and ot...

I fear German dominance. That’s why I’m for remaining in the EU | Simon Jenkins

In the end, this referendum is about politics not economics. And a Britain that votes to stay in the club will wield serious clout

Decision time is here. The dither must stop. The referendum campaign has been tedious and infuriating, but in truth enthralling. I cannot remember a political event that has so consumed public discussion. In every pub, workplace, college and home, friends have argued, families feuded, allegiances splintered. Only the 2014 Scottish referendum came near it. For two m...

The question terrorists love: ‘Can you guarantee safety at Euro 2016?’ | Simon Jenkins

Much of the impact of modern terrorism comes from overhype. Let the security services do their jobs in France without the media propagating fear

Welcome to the 2016 Terrorism Cup. What sort of a question is the one I heard on the BBC this morning: Can you “guarantee” that the games will be safe? This was asked of a French European cup official.

The question can invite only one of two answers, one a lie, the other an incitement to fear.

Nine-tenths of the impact of modern terrorism lies not in th...

Scientists aren’t gods. They deserve the same scrutiny as anyone else | Simon Jenkins

Experts preaching the ‘truth’ on healthy eating or cancer cures are not immune to the murky worlds of politics and commerce

I am not obese or dying of cancer. Nor am I a hypochondriac. But not a day passes without my absorbing news of imminent salvation or disaster from some branch of science. And whereas the panjandrums of big science used to maintain an aura of lofty objectivity as they demand our attention and cash, they now seem all over the shop, fighting like rats in a sack.

Take obesity....

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

It is the most extravagant infrastructure project in British history – but nobody can say why we need it. How did HS2 ever get so far?

Some time this summer, a piledriver should break ground outside Euston station in London. It will mark the start of the most extravagant infrastructure project in Britain’s history: High Speed 2, a railway line running 335 miles from London to Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield and Leeds. The line is budgeted at 55bn, although late last year its cost was widely...

EU referendum: our writers on Michael Gove's TV questioning

After the Brexit campaigner took on Sky’s Faisal Islam and a live studio audience, our columnists analyse his performance

Michael Gove agrees to audit of Vote Leave 350m claim
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Leave or remain – Britain’s fortunes hinge on a Europe in need of repair | Simon Jenkins

After experimenting with each side’s prejudices, it is clear to me where the greatest risk to our future lies

At the start of the referendum campaign the BBC decided to be impartial. It told its news staff to balance each item by getting the opposing camp to rebut it. It’s like taking an emetic with every mouthful of food. It ruins the taste and numbs the brain.

I have sought the same ideal by a different route. Early on, I decided I would switch “loyalties” between remain and leave on alternat...

Obama should not apologise for Hiroshima. He should heed its lessons | Simon Jenkins

The best way the US president can respect the memory of Hiroshima is by examining how non-combatants ever come to be bombed

Should Barack Obama “apologise” today for America’s bombing of Hiroshima? No. There is no point. Apologies are cheap. Instead, he should explain, justify and, if need be, learn. That is more expensive.

Related: Hope and hype of Hiroshima can’t conceal Obama’s dismal record on nuclear disarmament

Related: Story of cities #24: how Hiroshima rose from the ashes of nuclear d...

London’s empty towers mark a very British form of corruption | Simon Jenkins

These monoliths that dominate the skyline expose the tainted wealth that has the capital’s gullible politicians in thrall

Now we know. The glitzy 50-storey tower that looms over London’s Vauxhall and Pimlico is, as the Guardian revealed yesterday, just a stack of bank deposits. Once dubbed Prescott Tower, after the minister who approved it against all advice, it is virtually empty.

Related: Sadiq Khan condemns foreign investors' use of London homes as 'gold bricks'

Related: 'Tower for the tof...