Simon Heffer's Blog, page 8

These Euro-fanatics seem to lack any self-knowledge

A nother pitiful spectacle last week was the Open Britain initiative on tactical voting, spearheaded by Peter Mandelson and endorsed by Tony Blair, falling to pieces when the Tory MPs with whom it was associated deserted in horror at the thought having to endorse attacks on their colleagues . One...

The Tories have a chance to remake Britain - here's how they can seize it

T he catastrophe required to prevent a substantial Tory victory on June 8 is almost inconceivable. The alternative ��� a coalition led by Jeremy Corbyn and, by remote control from her bunker in Edinburgh, Nicola Sturgeon ��� need only be imagined for a second for its preposterousness to be obvious.

Justine Greening should ignore the bigots and give working people the grammar schools they want

J ustine Greening, the Education Secretary, was absolutely right to say that new grammar schools should concentrate on recruiting children from poorer families . That was their historic purpose, as with the excellent one I attended, one of King Edward VI���s many foundations from the 1550s.

We'll never tackle rising crime until we get serious about hurting people who do bad things

V iolent crime involving knives, guns and physical assaults is deluging the country in a way not seen for years. The police blame funding cuts; politicians blame the police for wasting money. With the shocking murder and funeral of Pc Keith Palmer fresh in the memory, one hesitates to criticise...

If Britain is to step up from global spectator to global player then we must fund our Armed Forces

O ne almost pitied Sir Michael Fallon, the Defence Secretary, answering questions after America���s strike on Syria on Friday about whether we had been asked to assist ��� and, if we were asked on another such occasion, whether we would. Such questions go directly, and embarrassingly, to the heart of...

The state shouldn't be helping itself to our cash without parliamentary approval

T he extortionate new probate fees for substantial estates ��� including that of more or less any householder in the London area ��� do have the effect of a tax, and must therefore be subject to parliamentary approval. Unless numerous Tory MPs actively want to lose their seats, Parliament shouldn���t...

MCC is betraying the soul of the game - it needs to fight ECB's Twenty20

T wo important cricket books arrived last week. One was the inspiring account by Duncan Hamilton of the gripping match at Lord���s last September in which the County Championship was decided at the wire between Middlesex and Yorkshire . The Kings of Summer (Safe Haven, ��9.99) is a fine piece...

I pity the Remainers who still cling to Project Fear. They grow more desperate every day

T hose morbidly fascinated by political psychology have had a riveting week. Triggering Article 50 has caused prominent Remainers desperate grief. A period of denial has now, for all but a few hopeless cases ��� the absurd Tim Farron, who leads what is left of the Liberal Democrats, and his...

Now that we are to be a sovereign nation again, we must bring back imperial units

D avid Davis, the Brexit Secretary, says that on leaving the EU we can start deporting criminals who the EU forces us to retain, on top of preventing such undesirables from coming here in the first place.

The glorification of Martin McGuinness will inspire countless home-grown jihadists

I wouldn���t dream of crediting the murderer Adrian Ajao, also known as Khalid Masood , with a sense of irony, but his choice of last week for his horrific attack on the public, police and Parliament suggested he might have had one. Across the Irish Sea, as Ajao struck, another...