Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 91

Fear and failure flow through the BBC’s hardened corporate arteries | Simon Jenkins

What the Jimmy Savile report exposes most clearly is the intimate relationship between size and disaster in institutions

Do you go into work afraid? Do you sense a “culture of fear” around you?

That is the phrase thrown at the BBC by Dame Janet Smith’s report on the Savile affair. It is hardly unique. It was used of the fate of NHS whistleblowers. It underlies the police behaviour in Rotherham’s sex exploitation case. It underpins many banking scandals.

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While London rides the Crossrail gravy train, the north is stuck in reverse | Simon Jenkins

Vanity megaprojects in the capital like the Elizabeth line and HS2 always win Whitehall battles, and can only spell doom for provincial spending

There will be no Elizabeth tube line from Salford to Rochdale, from Bolton to Wigan. There may be a train or two, but not a royal railway blessed by the monarch, like , all 14.8bn of it. The capital is special.

At the same time the chief inspector of schools, Sir Michael Wilshaw, was bewailing the poor quality of schools...

The pope should beware of criticising Trump. The church has its own walls and damnations | Simon Jenkins

Faith and politics are a vexed mixture. At least Donald Trump is seeking a democratic route to office – who elected Pope Francis?

You could hear the cheering. Pope Francis slams Donald Trump. Build bridges not walls, he says. Man of God humiliates demagogue as “not a Christian”. So perhaps America’s 70 million Catholics will not vote for him after all. That should see off Trump and all his types.

Hold on a minute. Suppose Trump had espoused birth control and abortion – which we can assume he pr...

This EU referendum doesn’t matter. But the next one will | Simon Jenkins

A no vote could precipitate the sort of reform Europe is crying out for. Surely that’s what everyone wants

In 532AD the city of Constantinople was torn between two parties, the blues and greens. Everyone, aristocrat or slave, belonged to one or other. In January a chariot race between the two erupted into riots. Destruction was appalling. Half the city was gutted by fire, including the great church of Hagia Sophia. A green emperor was chosen to replace Justinian, who backed the blues and butch...

Gravitational waves may help us answer the biggest question of all | Simon Jenkins

Humanity’s biggest question has always been: ‘How did it all start?’ Proving Albert Einstein’s hypothesis means we are edging ever closer to the answer

So what? I heard on the radio on Thursday that scientists had discovered gravitational waves and were thus closer to the dawn of time. I was walking past a newsstand shouting of a Syrian massacre and an NHS meltdown. A beggar asked me for a few pence. What really mattered?

We can understand cancer cures and Alzheimer’s breakthroughs. We can cope...

Our adoration is killing the NHS. It needs tough love | Simon Jenkins

Archaic demarcations between GPs, consultants and nurses are wasting billions. These have to go

John Reid, then the Labour government’s health secretary, in 2004 offered GPs a deal that ended weekend and home visits. They could hardly believe it. He also leveraged their average pay to £100,000 a year. People said it would send thousands rushing to accident and emergency. The British Medical Association called the deal “a bit of a laugh”, and the King’s Fund later calculated it added...

Welcome to the Syrian peace conference that will prolong the war | Simon Jenkins

The reality in Syria is grim: President Assad is going nowhere, and the west’s continuing intervention only gives hope and aid to the losing side

Every Syrian conference, like this week’s in London, comes with the same plea: don’t just give money – end the war. Money is given. Attempts are made to end the war, but the war goes on. Could there be a connection?

Next month it will be five years since the “day of rage” against the Assad regime in March 2011. Western intelligence said the regime wou...

The removal of road markings is to be celebrated. We are safer without them | Simon Jenkins

It’s clear there are fewer accidents when drivers are trusted not to kill themselves, and each other. Assuming we need constant protection is the mark of a controlling state.

Sensational news. The government is starting to remove white lines from the middle of roads in parts of the UK. It is doing so to reduce accidents and save lives. The idea is apparently revolutionary.

Research has shown that removing white lines induces uncertainty and thus cuts vehicle speeds by 13%. This has been the cas...

Zika’s greatest ally is human intransigence | Simon Jenkins

Mosquitoes spread the virus, but a slow response from the WHO and the Catholic church’s attitude to birth control make fighting it much harder

The revenge of the viruses marches on. After bird flu and Ebola comes Zika, and the possibility of widespread child deformity in mosquito-infested parts of the globe. The impact of the disease is as yet unpredictable, but its spread is so far fierce and unstoppable, and the disease is incurable. While a precise causal link between Zika and small-brain d...

The Big Shortfall: how UK taxpayers are cheated by business lobbyists | Simon Jenkins

We have a chancellor who can describe as a ‘major success’ just 130m in back taxes paid by Google. It has to be one of the biggest sweetheart deals of all time

What’s wrong with big business all of a sudden? The latest revelations of malpractice at Tesco, Sports Direct and Volkswagen are now capped by Google’s grand larceny of British taxpayers. There is of course “no wrongdoing”, that motto of modern business. But Google executives are behaving like medieval penitents, wandering Europe’s conf...