Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 92

After Litvinenko, more sanctions against Russia would be pointless – and hypocritical | Simon Jenkins

Killing one’s enemies abroad is odious, be they in London or Syria. But economic action would only strengthen Putin and hurt the Russian people

So now we know. We have waited 10 years to be told that the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, is an unprincipled thug. He gets his minions to rub out his enemies and traitors, such as Alexander Litvinenko, even when they are living abroad.

Related: Litvinenko murder suspect dismisses inquiry as 'nonsense'

Related: Alexander Litvinenko: the man who solve...

Britain broke Iraq. We can’t turn our back on its refugees | Simon Jenkins

The only justification for toppling Saddam Hussein was humanitarian – so Britain has to help those fleeing the horror it created

Welcome to pornography, United Nations style. You catalogue atrocities in meticulous detail. You list decapitations, mutilations, rapes, defenestrations and sex enslavements. You think of all the synonyms you can find for depravity. Then you deplore them, and go out to lunch.

Related: We need Chilcot’s lessons from Iraq now – before we bomb Syria | Richard Norton-Tay...

The free market works, but not when it comes to schools | Simon Jenkins

Our education system is becoming an inefficient, socially segregated mess – all because central government stripped councils of their powers

The free market is the best way of allocating scarce resources in 90% of cases. The other 10% includes schools.

Britain’s headteachers today claimed the blindingly obvious. If the government funds private organisations to set up “free” state schools wherever parents do not like existing ones, provision will be “wasteful, fragmented and confusing”. There wi...

Renew Trident? It’d make more sense to put Dad’s Army on the case | Simon Jenkins

It’s bizarre that Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour opponents have chosen this useless nuclear missile for their battleground

It brings a tear to the eye. The old times we never thought to see again are back. The talk is of hard left and soft right, of Trots, Bolsheviks and revisionists. Where were you, goes the clever question, not at Marston Moor but at Kronstadt? Where were you when Trotsky took his Red Army against the hapless party dissidents of the Baltic fleet, and mowed them down?

Related: Labour...

The state needs to butt out of Britain’s drinking habits | Simon Jenkins

These absurd new guidelines on how much alcohol we should drink are patronising and will have negligible effect on people’s health

Goodbye nudge, hello Big Brother. The new “limits” on how many drinks ministers feel are “safe” make no sense. For two decades, we have been told to closely monitor our units, with the number 21 hovering over us. Now the hyperactive health secretary Jeremy Hunt has decided to slash the number to 14, though leaving it the same (14) for women.

Related: Tough drinking...

London must stop sucking up cash from the rest of Britain | Simon Jenkins

It’s obscene that the capital gets whatever it wants – more bridges, concert halls, railways – while the regions are starved of funding

Britain’s capital city is becoming a spoiled brat. It is stupendously rich. It sucks population out of the rest of the country and then whinges when this drives up house prices. Now at Christmas, it demands the kind of baubles you would expect of an Arab princeling or a banana republic.

London this month stamped its foot and got the government to give...

Farage must go? While he dominates the immigration debate, it’s unlikely | Simon Jenkins

Douglas Carswell wants Ukip’s leader to step aside. But Nigel Farage strikes a chord with so many that such a move would be folly before the EU referendum

One thing the EU still does well is dinner, with the key dish on each menu being the next one. But lurking in the corridor outside is an increasingly noisy rabble, that of the continent’s rightwing politicians. For David Cameron, that rabble is embodied by Ukip’s Nigel Farage, feasting on monthly migration statistics.

Related: Ukip's MP Doug...

Tim Peake’s space mission is sheer political vanity | Simon Jenkins

Like Major Tim I always wanted to go into space - but I never thought the state should pay for the ticket. These astronomical sums would be better spent elsewhere

The ravening hordes pounced. The media, starved of that near-extinct species, a great British news story, went berserk. They were told the first real Briton was going into space (ie, not just a woman called Helen Sharman). He was a hero, a Major Tim.

Related: Tim Peake boards International Space Station and reports on ‘beautiful laun...

Never mind a third runway – what Heathrow needs is managed decline | Simon Jenkins

If more capacity were vital, the market would have spoken. So let’s discourage these polluting flights and spend the money on roads and trains instead

Never take a fact from a lobbyist. Heathrow runways have nothing to do with “vital British business”. The idea that spending a staggering £18bn on one runway is economically essential is ludicrous. The economy has far more need of better roads to ports, more commuter trains or cheaper electricity. That they lack the glamour of an airport s...

Bombs and guns won’t beat us, but our own hysteria will | Simon Jenkins

The terrorists can only win by sowing fear and confusion. Our leaders are falling into their trap

“He’s won,” I shouted at the television. “Bloody hell, he’s won.” As Donald Trump read out his surrender-to-terrorism message this week, I realised who was now his master: Osama bin Laden. Trump spoke with his eyes down, like a hostage under duress. His was an America frightened, incoherent, illiberal, fearful of some unknown power. He was the voice of a cowering nation.

Bin Laden, or at least his...