Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 89

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...

Even Tory councillors are up in arms. Osborne should leave schools alone | Simon Jenkins

The planned national schools service is England’s biggest nationalisation project since the NHS – and a gesture of contempt for local democracy

Now for the next revolt. The real news in George Osborne’s budget was not disability benefit cuts. It was the surreptitious launch of England’s biggest nationalisation project since the NHS in 1948.

Related: 'They’ve gone bonkers': Tory councillors angry with academy plans

Osborne should back off now. This is a nationalisation too far

Related: Parents...

The scariest thing about Brussels is our reaction to it | Simon Jenkins

Paranoid politicians, sensational journalists – the Isis recruiting officers will be thrilled at how things have gone since their atrocity in Belgium

Think like the enemy. Let’s suppose I am an Islamic State terrorist. I don’t do bombs or bullets. I leave the dirty work to the crazies in the basement. My job is what happens next. It is to turn carnage into consequences, body parts into politics. I am a consultant terrorist. I wear a suit, not explosives. A blood-stained concourse is a means to...

Our response to the Brussels bombings requires patience and restraint | Simon Jenkins

Blanket media coverage and calls for revenge just fuel the cycle of violence

The purpose of terrorism is not to destroy or kill. It is to pursue a political cause through the massive publicity that is attached to terrifying incidents. Today’s bombs in Brussels, apparently related to the attacks in Paris last year and the capture of Salah Abdeslam last Friday, are patently intended to do just that. Merely killing passers-by serves no warlike purpose in itself. The explosive force derives from o...

How convincing was David Cameron’s Commons statement? | Rafael Behr, Anne Perkins, Simon Jenkins and Martin Kettle

The prime minister attempted to call a truce between the warring flanks of his party. It wasn’t an unqualified success

Related: With the Tory party imploding, Labour needs to reinvent itself – fast | Paul Mason

Related: Iain Duncan Smith has revealed the empty truth of compassionate conservatism | Suzanne Moore

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