Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 97

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...

For Greece, the worst catastrophe now would be to stay in the eurozone | Simon Jenkins

A Grexit, with a managed default and devaluation to kickstart recovery, is the only deal that should be on the table

There must be Grexit this weekend. It is light at the end of the tunnel, the best possible outcome from Greece’s agony and, in truth, the only one. The admission of Greece into the eurozone in 2001, tying its economy to that of Germany (and its reckless bankers), was a disaster waiting to happen. The error was so great that even this tiny economy – just 1.3% of the EU’s – has co...

The Garrick Club’s vote to keep women out is sad rather than sexist | Simon Jenkins

With an average age of around 70, the lovely old Covent Garden building is more a daycare centre than a club. Does it matter that its members want a male-only enclave?

Who gives a damn about London’s private and male-only Garrick Club? The answer is that its members do, which is their (and incidentally my) business. So do some women, who are the only group specifically barred from membership. They protest at what is an “affinity” society, mostly of actors, writers, lawyers and media types, exc...

This Heathrow report got Cameron off the hook. But it won’t be the last word | Simon Jenkins

Howard Davies thinks a trickle-down effect from the airport will benefit the whole country. This clearly cannot be

Government inquiries are Britain’s bullfights. They are expensive, ritualised, interminable and the cause of lavish corporate expenditure. They all have the same ending: a man in a suit pirouetting over a pile of bleeding meat.

The bleeding meat of Wednesday’s Davies report is London’s environment, apparently in need of yet more air, noise and traffic pollution at levels that shoul...

Why do we keep giving terrorists exactly what they want? | Simon Jenkins

The fear-fuelled reaction to the Tunisia attacks by the UK government and media alike glamorises the crimes and only encourages others to emulate them

First question, what do terrorists want? Answer, they want massive publicity for their every outrage, followed by politicians and others generating hysteria, fear and repression. The UK response to the Tunisian massacre from David Cameron, his government and the media has granted that wish. The second question is whether granting that wish might...

HS2 has just claimed its first victim: the rail upgrades we so badly need | Simon Jenkins

As Network Rail’s investment plan grinds to a halt, HS2 is more of a wild extravagance than ever. Put it on ice and the money where it is actually needed

The truth is out. When the HS2 railway line was confirmed by the last government, the transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin promised it would have no impact on existing rail investment. Yesterday that promise lay in ruins. Network Rail’s much-vaunted £38.5bn rail investment plan – in reality it is the government’s – has been put on hol...

Festivals, flights and fulfilment: welcome to the post-digital world

However well-connected it makes us, cyberspace is lonely. That’s why, more and more, we are looking for live experiences

Meeting this week in the south of France is the giant Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. It is a fancy title for the marketing world’s Mad Men on sea. Rumour has it that half the world’s annual ad revenue is negotiated on its yachts and in its hotels and bars. It thus joins the Cannes film festival, the Frankfurt book fair, cancer research in Chicago and arms fairs everywh...