Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 96

We don’t need exams to be a grand national teenage bake-off | Simon Jenkins

Success at school has very little to do with success in life – whatever the ‘system’ would like you to believe

Who needs Jeremy Corbyn when we have education minister Nick Gibb? As the Conservative government seeks to end local control of schools, its next target for nationalisation is exams. Gibb says he is “upset and angry” at the performance of the four private exam boards, not least following the computer fiasco of one of them, OCR, last year. It makes no sense, he says, “to have three or...

How easy it is to convict the dead and defenceless | Simon Jenkins

The case against Edward Heath looks flimsy, but already the gutter is being dredged for lurid, unsubstantiated claims

That’s it then. Sir Edward Heath was a paedophile. It has been on the news for four days, so it must be true. They might just be allegations, but we know there is “no smoke without fire”. The chap was a “confirmed bachelor”, nudge, nudge. They are always a bit fishy, these lonely sorts.

I suppose many people just shrug and say public figures must take the rough with the smooth,...

China’s schools are testing factories. Why is Britain so keen to copy them? | Simon Jenkins

Our government seems determined to move towards the Chinese style of hothousing pupils, just as China is waking up to the folly of such methods

This evening the BBC will carry forward the great myth that Chinese education is “better” than Britain’s. A documentary comparing Chinese and British teachers in a Hampshire school will show Chinese teachers appalled at how disruptive, challenging and idle British pupils could be. That, by implication, is why Chinese children do better, far better, in...

To save lions like Cecil, turn poachers into gamekeepers | Simon Jenkins

Big game hunts outrage the west, but South Africa shows that sustainable ranching is more effective than bans

A dentist from Wisconsin goes hunting in Zimbabwe and bags its most famous lion, Cecil. In response, Cecil’s friends have gone hunting in Minnesota in the hope of bagging its most infamous dentist, Walter Palmer. Welcome to the world of charismatic mega-species, their predators and protectors. One thing only is for sure, the predators are winning.

Last month the Dallas Safari Club annou...

When it comes to corruption, Britain really should shut up | Simon Jenkins

David Cameron’s sudden passion for transparency comes after five years of buy-to-leave property purchasing, lobbying and a visit to Kazakhstan’s dictator

David Cameron thinks corruption is a bad thing and wishes Britain to set a global example of virtue. He is worried that his capital city, London, might become “a safe haven for corrupt money from around the world,” indeed for “plundered and laundered cash.” According to Transparency International, a tenth of the properties in Westminster alo...

George Osborne will spend more than ever. Don’t be fooled by his ‘40% cuts’ | Simon Jenkins

The chancellor is not cutting the cost of the public sector – he just wants a different one. But even then, expect costs to balloon

George Osborne loves to play the heebie-jeebie who pops up at parties and shouts “Boo!”. But Tuesday’s request for a “40% cut” in government spending looks like cruelty to children. No one believes it will happen. In no year of Osborne’s chancellorship has he actually cut public spending – and only in 2013 was it cut in real terms. Nor did his latest budget aim to...

Harriet Harman took the only sensible decision on the welfare bill | Simon Jenkins

If Labour had voted against the welfare package as a whole, she would have walked into the irresponsibility trap set by the Tories and hamstrung any future leader

What was Harriet Harman supposed to do? As Labour’s stand-in leader she took over a party in disarray, its senior figures at each other’s throats. She had to muster her demoralised troops for the first battle of the new parliament – over George Osborne’s budget – and not make policy on the hoof that would hamstring a successor when e...

Pluto will always beat prisons when it comes to tax money | Simon Jenkins

Stephen Hawking’s right: we explore because we’re human. But those who shout the loudest will get the most money, regardless of the social dividend

The two headlines were next to each other. “Prisons worst for 10 years”, and “Snow on Pluto”. The juxtaposition may seem unfair, but how to react? Presumably to the first with anger, and the second with excitement. Compared with the remorseless grime of humans, astronomy offered an escape, a cause for joy, a vision of futurity. Stephen Hawking cong...

With her cynical foxhunting vote, Sturgeon has joined the Westminster club | Simon Jenkins

The decision to vote on an English matter in order to spite David Cameron is parliamentary game-playing of the kind the SNP claims to despise

There is only one argument for the Scottish Nationalists’ decision to vote on England’s foxhunting laws. It should hasten the day when they never do so again. Fans of their leader, Nicola Sturgeon, can only be saddened to see her falling for the trap of the Westminster political club.

None of this has anything to do with the rights or wrongs of foxhunting...

Telling British tourists to flee Tunisia rewards terrorism | Simon Jenkins

The security hysteria of politicians such as Philip Hammond, our foreign secretary, is the only thing that poses an ‘existential threat’ to Britain

Britain has imposed economic sanctions on Tunisia. These are in retaliation for that country’s failure to prevent what the prime minister calls an “existential threat to Britain” from so-called Islamic State terrorists.

The head of London’s police, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, declared earlier this week that the Tunisia killings meant it was “highly like...