Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 89

The economics of Brexit – Politics Weekly podcast

Simon Jenkins, Polly Toynbee and Larry Elliott join Tom Clark to discuss the economic consequences of Britain leaving the European Union. Plus Suzanne Goldenberg in New York takes stock of the US presidential race

George Osborne launched a 200-page projection of what Britain’s economy would look like outside of the European Union this week and his analysis was damning: anyone who thinks that leaving the EU would be beneficial is “economically illiterate”.

But how robust are his figures? And c...

Here is the news: it’s usually bad – and that’s bad for us | Simon Jenkins

I used to believe that the media’s diet of misery was good for the morale of ordinary people. Not any more

If it bleeds, it leads. Fear projects. Bad news sells. Failure makes the front page, success goes to the back. So what is it this week with so many headlines about the Queen? I recall an edict once coming down from a newspaper proprietor that the boss was “fed up with so much bad news”. He wanted a “good-news paper”. We duly prepared a spoof front page. It reported: “No crashes at Heathro...

Why Countryfile is the most political show on TV | Simon Jenkins

This is a programme that both celebrates country life and holds it to account. Now it has an 8 million-strong constituency – David Cameron, take note

Countryfile is my guilty secret. On a Sunday evening, when I want to sit back and not think too much, BBC1 offers me an hour of alternative reality. It offers a Britain that is beautiful yet real, hard-working yet leisured, a place without streets, housing estates or crowds, yet unmistakably British. Its star presenter, Adam Henson, does not lie...

Will Obama’s Brexit intervention make a difference? | Simon Jenkins

The US president has declared his support for the remain camp. But Britons might not like outsiders meddling in their politics

Barack Obama is right. Britain is America’s closest ally and deserves its unswerving support in time of peril. If Britain wants his vote on the EU, that’s the way it will be. It’s high fives for Dave when the president arrives next week.

But hold on. Which Britain wants his vote, the inners or the outers? As the BBC would put it, if that is one American president agains...

Ignore ministers’ sex lives – focus on their incompetence | Simon Jenkins

No Walpole, no Churchill: imagine the damage our hyprocrisy mania would have done to our history

A divorced MP, now a minister, once met a woman through a website who turned out to be a dominatrix sex worker. He instantly dropped her. This may interest the public, but is it a matter of “public interest”? Is there a public interest in how the prime minister legally stored his savings before coming to power, or how the chancellor makes his tax-paying efficient? Does the public have an “interest”...

As a taxpayer, David Cameron is innocent. As a lawmaker, he is guilty | Simon Jenkins

It’s reasonable to try to keep your tax bill down – but not when you’re a British prime minister who turns a blind eye to offshore tax avoidance on a vast scale
• David Cameron faces growing pressure to come clean on finances
• Where does David Cameron’s money come from?

Get serious. That is what David Cameron could have said in his interview with Robert Peston last night.

There is nothing more ridiculous than Britain in a fit of self-righteousness. Afflicted with inherited wealth, Cameron had be...

From Snowden to Panama, all hail the power of the press | Simon Jenkins

The Panama Papers show how, while parliament prevaricates, it is left to investigative journalists to reveal the truth and spur on reform

The Panama Papers revelations so far
Offshore secrets of China’s red nobility

Fifa corruption, Snowden and surveillance, Rotherham child abuse, drugged athletes, Stephen Lawrence, WikiLeaks, MPs’ expenses, phone hacking, HSBC, cash for questions, cricket fixing, extraordinary rendition, Olympic bribery, Slater Walker share fixing, DC-10 crashes, thalidomide, c...

A real Tory chancellor wouldn’t persecute buy-to-let landlords | Simon Jenkins

Of course there are racketeers and slum landlords, but going after all landlords is an oddly un-Tory move that won’t help – or free up any under-used space

Is George Osborne really a Tory? This week his previous grovelling before communist China over steel tariffs has returned to haunt him. His conversion to a socialist “living wage” is enraging small businesses. Today, in a sudden revulsion against market economics he is penalising buy-to-let investors – and their tenants.

Osborne’s assault on...

On Brexit, gender, age and political party are no guide as to how we’ll vote | Simon Jenkins

With so many facts about Europe’s future unknown, voters are making choices based on gut instinct

Are you an inner or an outer?” the taxi driver asked me. “I don’t know yet,” I replied. “How about you?” He was emphatic. “I was an outer,” he said, “but then Boris said he was an outer, so I switched to inner. Can’t stand bloody Johnson. Wrecked the traffic.”

Related: The Brexiters’ grim list of EU criminals debases political debate | Owen Jones

People say they want facts, but in truth they want...

After Palmyra, the message to Isis: what you destroy, we will rebuild | Simon Jenkins

Islamic State’s orgy of destruction is over, but the Syrian city’s ancient heritage can be restored with 3D technology

The recapture of the Syrian desert city of Palmyra must lift the spirits of all who knew its former glory. But after the dust dies down, a new army arrives: that of archaeologists brandishing questions. How much of what has gone should be restored? By what means, and by whom? And where does Palmyra belong, to Syria or the world?

For once, there is no doubting the drive. Syria’s...