Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 92

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...

MPs back Syria airstrikes and Labour holds Oldham West – Politics Weekly podcast

Helen Pidd, Simon Jenkins, Gary Younge and Martin Kettle join Tom Clark to discuss an emotional Commons debate on bombing Isis in Syria and a Labour victory in Oldham West that has defied media expectations

Jeremy Corbyn’s first engagement with the ballot box as Labour leader came in the Oldham West and Royston byelection on Thursday. Corbyn was quick to claim credit for a swing towards Labour as the party held it with a thumping majority.

Joining Tom Clark this week to discuss it all are the...

Oldham West’s victory gives Jeremy Corbyn a chance to smile | Simon Jenkins

Jim McMahon swept to byelection triumph, but the result also marks the Labour leader’s first electoral test; one where the Tories were beaten into third place

“A vote of confidence in the Labour party,” said a relieved Jeremy Corbyn of his party’s victory in the Oldham West and Royton byelection last night. It was his first electoral test as leader and he passed. After a week in political hell, the sight of cheering supporters and waving rosettes must have been comforting beyond all expectatio...

It’s Cameron, not Corbyn, who is the terrorist appeaser | Simon Jenkins

If the prime minister were really concerned about Isis, he’d come up with a coherent military strategy

Prime minister David Cameron’s argument in the Commons for permission to bomb Syria was not based on any new or coherent strategy. As he himself pointed out, it merely follows the logic of a previous vote to bomb Iraq. Even so, like Tony Blair before the Iraq invasion of 2003, he had to rely on abusing his opponents, scaring the public and disseminating dubious intelligence.

Related: Jeremy C...

Cameron’s drive to bomb Syria is macho, foolish and must be stopped | Simon Jenkins

Labour has the power to prevent us getting into a conflict we cannot resolve. Jeremy Corbyn, for once, has got it right

Jeremy Corbyn’s challenge to David Cameron on the bombing of Syria is unanswerable, and every Labour MP knows it. So too is his explanation of his position in his letter to his party. A British prime minister’s statement on the eve of war should never be taken at face value. We have heard these bombastic calls to foreign aggression – festooned with jingoist opinion polls – to...