Cuba has shown us that sanctions don’t work – so why keep using them? | Simon Jenkins

With all the subtlety of Game of Thrones, this kind of warfare has become the default mode of western diplomacy. Yet the only people they hurt are the poor

The days are long gone when Labour was torn apart by ban the bomb. For the party leader, Ed Miliband, the Trident missile is what HS2 is for David Cameron. It is political tokenism, machismo, image candy. Am I big on defence, Miliband said to an interviewer. “Hell, yes.” Look at my weapons.

For Britain (and France), nuclear bombs are to fore...