Simon Jenkins's Blog, page 99

Poor David Cameron is now prisoner of all his promises

The Queen’s speech suggests that the prime minister regrets his moment of pre-election passion and is left wondering what he promised

Related: Queen's speech: the day ‘psychoactive drugs’ tripped off the royal tongue

The first Queen’s speech of the second term should be golden. All trouble and strife is behind. Ahead lie the sunny uplands of a Commons majority. Apologies have been made, lessons learned and hope restored. For a party leader the second term is the moment of opportunity, when co...

Cameron’s bid for special treatment in Europe is a phenomenal gamble | Simon Jenkins

Germany and France talking up eurozone convergence plays to Britain’s Eurosceptics. Few of Cameron’s fellow European leaders would dare take this risk

David Cameron is about to hurl his irresistible election mandate at the immoveable object of France and Germany, and their desire for ever closer union. He is to clear his diary for a month-long campaign to avert another diplomatic car crash over Europe.

Cameron has promised “fundamental change” in Britain’s treaty relations with the EU, with a r...

Circus Maximus by Andrew Zimbalist review – an Olympic-sized rip-off

A remarkable study that exposes the extraordinary chicanery and dodgy dealing behind staging the Olympics and the World Cup

Apart from war, nothing so deranges the political mind as national sports rivalry. It stirs patriotism, ostentation and group hysteria. In Britain, its participants are accorded the status of quasi-military heroes. At the apex of this derangement stand two so-called mega-events, the Olympic Games and football’s World Cup. Politicians will beg, bribe, cheat, lie and s...

What are cities doing so right – and so wrong? Edward Glaeser talks to Simon Jenkins

New York-born Harvard economist Edward Glaeser is one of the world’s foremost urban thinkers. Ahead of his upcoming lecture on ‘comeback cities’, he talks to Guardian columnist and vocal London campaigner Simon Jenkins

Simon Jenkins: Can I start by asking what is it about cities that people once so disliked – and what it is they now so appreciate?

Edward Glaeser: I think the reality of urban life throughout most of history is that people didn’t come to cities for their pleasure. It wasn’t a pa...

The moral of the gay wedding cake row: the law can’t create tolerance | Simon Jenkins

This tale of patisserie and prejudice is a grim comment on Britain’s long and incompetent custodianship of Northern Ireland

A Christian walks into a Muslim sign writer’s shop and orders a placard. He says it should carry a cartoon of the prophet and the slogan Muslims Go Home. The sign writer is deeply offended and says he cannot execute the order. The customer is outraged at the discrimination, is supported by the equality commission, sues, and the sign writer is fined £500 plus costs.

I...

Excessive banking salaries will only be curbed by more competition | Simon Jenkins

The government can’t restrict bank staff’s pay, as Steve Hilton suggests. But it can enforce true competition and refuse to do business with banks that think they are too big to fail

There is no feasible way the banking industry will – or probably should – be legally curbed in how much it pays its staff. During the financial crash, politicians and the press universally condemned million-pound salaries and multimillion bonuses. The banks took not a shred of notice, even when pocketing billions...

The “black spider” memos: a royal sigh of woe at a world gone to the dogs |

The publication of Prince Charles’s letters is a victory. But he’s small fry compared with the lobbying industry sharks

If the Prince of Wales had been plain Charles Windsor, he would probably be a green columnist for the Guardian. The “black spider” letters to ministers, published today, are so anodyne as to suggest a Private Eye spoof. We have his various views on hill farms, bovine TB, military helicopters, herbal medicine, Smithfield market, Antarctic huts and the fate of the albatross. Th...

Talent is talent – England needs Kevin Pietersen | Simon Jenkins

The cricketer’s 326 for Surrey marks him out as one of the greats of his age. But, unlike Nigel Farage, it seems he won’t be allowed to rise from the ashes

Kevin Pietersen is the Nigel Farage of cricket. How many runs/votes do you need for a seat in the national team? The difference is that Farage can stage a comeback in 24 hours. Pietersen has fallen to the antique gods of cricket. His latest performance, 326 for Surrey against Leicestershire, may prove him a master batsman. But cricket’s old...

Let David Cameron have his moment of glory. The plotters await | Simon Jenkins

In spite of this triumph, the PM will find it harder to keep his own party in order than he did with Nick Clegg

Coalition is dead. Britain has chosen a majority Tory government for the first time in almost a quarter century. From the moment Labour chose Ed Miliband as its leader, David Cameron banked on this. But so enslaved are politicians to the mystic magic of the polls that by Thursday the Tories had all but admitted defeat. Today’s roseate glow of victory was the more exquisite for b...

We feel for the Libyans and Nepalese, but British charity stops at Calais | Simon Jenkins

Our sympathy for those hit by disaster is limited. Refugees heading to our shores won’t be welcomed

I once asked a newly married friend when she expected to start a family. She looked shocked, waved a newspaper at me and asked: “How could I possibly bring a child into such a cruel, awful world, threatened with global warming and overpopulation?” To have a child, she said, would be selfish. I protested that she was taking the humanitarian gene too seriously.

The same might be said of a British g...