Simon Heffer's Blog, page 14

Corruption and reckless pursuit of money threaten to pollute cricket just as much as it poisons football

W e cricket lovers might have been excused a moment of smugness during The Telegraph's expos of the gruesome conduct of Sam Allardyce , the former England manager, and others in football last week. It seemed to confirm the moral superiority of our game over one long tainted by its...

Labour is irrelevant under Jeremy Corbyn and his poisonous comrades

E ven if some pundits have lost their grip on reality, by talking about the unity that followed the Labour conference and how good Jeremy Corbyn was, I am glad to see that most Labour supporters havent: 59 per cent think the party wont win the next election , and...

Theresa May must be bold to benefit all of Britain

B ecause Theresa May described her aims so eloquently just a few weeks ago on becoming Prime Minister in her speech about enabling social mobility and returning to proper Conservative virtues of helping people move up lifes ladder it may seem that the one she will deliver to...

Stop the hounding of our armed forces, and fund defence properly

W hile we should applaud Sir Michael Fallon, the Defence Secretary , for recognising the scandal of investigations into alleged human rights abuses by British soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, and promising in his interview with The Telegraph yesterday to support suspects by paying their legal costs, it is shameful...

It's time to end the pointless inquiry into historic child abuse

C an Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, find the guts to admit that the inquiry into historic child abuse is simply pointless and should be scrapped before it wastes any more public money? It wasnt her idea, after all and it probably wasnt the Prime Ministers either, when she...

Shrinking the House of Lords is the only way to rescue it from cronyism

I n Margaret Thatchers cabinet Norman Fowler developed a reputation for being deeply unexciting. However, the absence of self-publicity concealed a serious and successful conduct of potentially one of the most troublesome departments of state the old Department of Health and Social Security where he kept the lid...

A manifesto for promoting the Championship: 12 counties, day-night matches and England players must be available

T he shortening days of September see the focus of our cricket return to the County Championship which, if we are to believe the doomsayers, means that hardly anyone at all will be interested. This year there is a little added spice, which is that only one side is...

Why do our politicians hate democracy so very much?

O ur own political class, in its contempt for democracy, does little to restore its reputation. On Friday Nicola Sturgeon launched a new conversation about Scottish independence , an idea handsomely rejected two years ago. Could we finish the old conversation first? What would Scotlands currency be if it were...

Calling Trump names won't stop him becoming US President

J ust two months before the free world elects its next leader if you believe America leads the free world, that is the worlds liberal media seem united on two things. The first is that Donald Trump is a monster. The second is that he will lose the...

The NHS will simply collapse unless politicians have the courage to reform it

D espite the Conservative Party having promised to increase NHS spending by 8 billion a year during this parliament the minimum demanded by its managers we learn of a crisis within the institution that promises a financial shortfall of 20 billion by 2020-21. Without (so far) any consultation,...