Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 87

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
Continue reading...

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...

The luvvies’ Brexit letter only shows most people vote with their wallets | Simon Jenkins

That our lucky stars of stage and screen benefit from the EU’s largesse should hardly be a clincher for anybody else

Who can possibly argue with 250 luvvies crying, “Remain!”? How can anyone reply when these gods cite everyone from “the Bard to Bowie” in their cause? They carry into battle Richard III, Sherlock Holmes, Elizabeth Bennet, the Red Queen, the Olympics, Love Actually, a dozen Hamlets and even the dear old Queen. They are actors, novelists, writers, directors, celebrities, names, al...

Unless Gove cuts prison numbers, he’s doomed to fail | Simon Jenkins

Michael Gove’s plans are welcome, as far as they go. But they won’t work unless the justice secretary addresses sentencing

Prisons are the fetid, dank dungeons of modern government. If de Tocqueville was right and you can judge a nation’s democracy by its jails, Britain is rotten. They are what you get when public service is left to fear-exploiting, headline-hunting, micro-managing politicians. You get a suppurating blister of violence, self-harm, drug abuse and recidivism. “Prison works” is a...

Books are back. Only the technodazzled thought they would go away | Simon Jenkins

The hysterical cheerleaders of the e-book failed to account for human experience, and publishers blindly followed suit. But the novelty has worn off

At last. Peak digital is at hand. The ultimate disruptor of the new information age is … wait for it … the book.

Shrewd observers noted the early signs. Kindle sales initially outstripped hardbacks but have slid fast since 2011. Sony killed off its e-readers. Waterstones last year stopped selling Kindles and e-books outside the UK, switched shelf s...

Fantastically crony-capitalist: that’ll be Cameron-land | Simon Jenkins

It’s all very well fingering Nigeria and Afghanistan. But our war on corruption should really start with a very British predilection for tax havens and avoidance

Was it a spoof? Was it a set-up? Was it real? Like a hologram from Madame Tussauds, the Queen, the archbishop of Canterbury, the prime minister and the Speaker of the House of Commons stood in a circle, while cameras roamed round them. They instinctively defaulted to type, discussing Kipling’s “lesser breeds without the law”. Ma’am, s...