Simon Heffer's Blog, page 10

HS2 is monumentally wasteful, outdated, and will do nothing for the North ��� it must be scrapped

T he Institute for Fiscal Studies recently told us that we face the highest taxation for 30 years to pay down our budget deficit. We still live beyond our means, and the state continues to provide services and perform functions that should be the responsibility of individuals and the private...

MCC and ministers must join forces to prevent cricket from dying in our state schools

T he Marylebone Cricket Club does not always enjoy the best reputation among those not lucky enough to be its members. Outsiders often feel it is stuffy, out of touch and smugly elitist. The MCC is not perfect, but it remains a force in the game, and generally one for...

If Fran��ois Fillon goes down, who will save France from its self-inflicted decline?

F ran��ois Fillon has the right idea for France ��� cutting its crippling public sector and restructuring its economy ��� but it looks as though his payments to his family for doing nothing, by his wife���s admission , will do for him.

Does Theresa May have anything else to offer Britain beyond Brexit?

H aving had the Brexit vote, and the Brexit White Paper , it is time the rest of politics resumed. Even those of us who thought the main thing wrong with the United Kingdom was its subservience to anti-democratic and corrupt rule from Brussels understood that more needed to change...

Labour's Brexit disarray could lose them Stoke, and open the Ukip floodgates

G iven the Bill triggering Article 50 will sail through the Commons, any reflection on the mess Labour is in over it - with even a couple of the party���s whips prepared to defy themselves and vote against - is of little consequence.

Britain's relationship with the United States is not special. But we need it more than ever

T he templates for recent relationships between the American Head of State and the British Head of Government have not been inspiring. We had Mr Blair���s obsequiousness to Mr Clinton and Mr Bush; Mr Brown���s near-invisibility to Mr Obama; and the conspiracy of cynicism between Mr Cameron and Mr Obama...

If Remainers are so democratic, why do they insist on subverting the will of the people?

D espite Mrs Mays speech, there are still some tragic figures in our public life who pretend to be democratic politicians, but who wish to subvert and ignore democracy. The ridiculous Tim Farron, semi-hysterical leader of the Liberal Democrats, has rebuked Jeremy Corbyn for asking Labour MPs to vote for...

Theresa May's Brexit plan must begin with an immediate end to all EU immigration

O n Tuesday, we shall at last get Mrs Mays version of Brexit. We need clarity on three related points in particular: control of immigration; where that leaves an EU internal market that our partners (or rather, opponents) say can include us only if we accept free movement of people;...

Colossus of roads: the man whose highways tied Britain together

Simon Heffer enjoys a biography of Thomas Telford, a visionary engineer whose highways tied Britain together

Sajid Javid���s folly would be to build in Tory back yards

T hanks primarily to two things unchecked immigration and high divorce rates we have insufficient housing. Prices are so high in the south-east that many live with their parents well into their 30s. Essential staff, such as teachers and those in the emergency services, struggle to find a...