Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 9

Now we know Farage and Reform’s so-called policies. The worst thing Sunak can do is copy them | Simon Jenkins

Voters will see through the thin prospectus Farage offered today. And pandering to his ideas won’t end well for the Conservatives

Smash him. Go for the jugular. Take the gloves off and hit him with the big one. We have nothing to lose. A sure sign of political panic is when the kids in the backroom take control of tactics and use the language of the big fight.

But who is it that Rishi Sunak is reportedly being advised to smash? The gossip from anonymous “advisers” is that he should get nasty with ...

A Tokyo developer will demolish a building for spoiling the view. Why doesn’t Britain care about beauty? | Simon Jenkins

Politicians and planners are allowing the Thames to become an urban canyon – greed always seems to win out

A Japanese developer has announced it will demolish a new tower of luxury flats in Tokyo it was weeks from completing. The reason? The 10-storey development was blocking beautiful views of Mount Fuji. The idea a developer would reach such a decision in Britain is inconceivable. In London, flats are usually built to make a profit. If they have a beautiful view, good luck to those buying them...

Cut Rishi Sunak some slack – his D-day blunder is hardly the worst thing he’s done | Simon Jenkins

The real problem is how past wars are invoked not only to ramp up today’s defence spending, but to agitate for fresh conflict

Attacks on Rishi Sunak for cutting short his attendance at the D-day commemoration have been overblown. His early return home was a presentational error, but he had attended the relevant British ceremonies and is in the midst of an election campaign. The final day was a giant sound and light show with a photocall mostly for assorted heads of state rather than heads of gove...

I’m a floating voter. Wes Streeting has my attention, but who else has bold, radical ideas? | Simon Jenkins

The country is sick of the Tories. The opposition promises change, but is too terrified to articulate what that might entail

This is the wail of the floating voter. I start every election a deliberate floater. An open mind staves off tedium. The only alternative is going on holiday. For a radical, to float is also to enjoy a moment of hope. Might there be, somewhere in the dark cloud of current politics, just a glimmer of light?

In their first week or so, most election campaigns hit rock bottom. S...

Crowing about the Trump verdict will only hurt Biden – populists thrive on claims of persecution | Simon Jenkins

The more the political establishment damns the ex-president, the more those outside its reach are drawn to him

“Guilty”, screamed the one-word headline in the New York Times last week, dripping with undisguised glee. Howls of contempt descended on Donald Trump as he slunk from his Manhattan courtroom to cries of “felon”. He now awaits sentence and three more criminal trials, two of them over his response to his 2020 election defeat.

Ecstasy is a dangerous substance in politics. Trump’s enemies sho...

So it’s goodbye to London’s Standard, my old paper – and to the heart of democracy, local news | Simon Jenkins

The sad decline of this nearly 200-year-old institution has culminated with a decision to end the daily print edition

They could as well have felled Big Ben, drained the Serpentine or butchered the ravens in the Tower. No more daily print edition of the Evening Standard. No headlines to greet us at every tube station. No cockney cries of: “Read all aba’it!” No news of what celebrity was where last night and with whom.

The Evening Standard, which has announced plans to shutter its daily newspaper i...

Our schools don’t prepare young people for life. National service could change that | Simon Jenkins

Forget the military, but working under supervision in the NHS, care sector or for a charity could be hugely beneficial for many

Rishi Sunak’s reinvention of national service is a desperate, last-minute election gimmick. But that does not make it a bad idea. If there is one phase in education across Britain that is way off course, it is the higher teens. Sixth-form, higher and further education are deeply reactionary, more plagued than ever by introverted academic syllabuses and obsessive testin...

Memo to Keir Starmer: say change, change, change all you want, but soon our problems will be yours to fix | Simon Jenkins

Labour’s pitch is basically ‘elect us, we’re not Tory’, but people will quickly demand real improvements

We are told the focus groups are clear as a bell. No, Labour’s Keir Starmer is not exhilarating. No, the economy is not screaming for new management. Yes, the world is a mess. But one message for sure was splashed across Starmer’s lectern on Wednesday: give us “change”.

Rishi Sunak has not been a signally worse prime minister than his recent predecessors. Eighteen months ago he was handed a tou...

Julian Assange has paid a heavy price for his leaks – the US should let him go home | Simon Jenkins

From Joe Biden’s point of view, returning the WikiLeaks founder to Australia and consigning him to history may be the wisest move

The Julian Assange farce has run its time. He should be left to return to his homeland of Australia. Yet another appeal against successive British court decisions to extradite him to the US has been allowed. It merely prolongs the tedium. Washington should consider Assange’s more than a decade on the run to be penalty enough for his past sins. It should not want to see...

For a bird’s eye view of British conservatism, look at sport. No wonder VAR in football is in trouble | Simon Jenkins

Once we create rules and customs, it’s a devil’s job to change them. The debate about video refereeing will be a mighty test

There is one test of a true radical. It is not a quest for revolution in politics, philosophy, art or religion. The challenge lies in the realm of sport. Sport alone is immune to reform. It is enslaved to the past.

Olympic athletes wield the weapons of ancient Athens. The golf club dates from the hundred years war. The size of a football goal was fixed in a Holborn pub in 18...