From Timbuktu to Grimsby, heritage deserves to be revered and restored | Simon Jenkins

Historic buildings possess a cultural vitality. Failing to repair them is a loss to our communal memory

If you demolish a historic building in Timbuktu you commit a war crime. If you demolish one in Britain you apply for retrospective planning permission. What is the difference?

The decision of the international court in The Hague this week to prosecute a former al-Qaida insurgent, Ahmad al-Mahdi, for destroying nine ancient tombs in Mali is deeply significant. For the first time, the concept o...