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Simon Jenkins

Simon Jenkins

The Guardian

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England’s metro mayors make a farce of local democracy. They must be scrapped

England’s 12 “metro mayors” should be abolished. Metro mayorships are artificial creations whose regional geography rarely reflects any civic...

monday 30

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Schools should bond communities: faith schools divide them. Why are ministers making that worse?

To gain admission to the local church school near my home, parents were always advised to attend church. Otherwise, they were told, they should try...

02.05.2024 20

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

After years of inquiries, why are victims of gross errors by public bodies still waiting for proper compensation?

How much money should go to those given infected blood in the 1970s and 80s? And how much to the wronged subpost office operators? Such questions...

30.04.2024 40

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Venice is leading the way with a tourist tax. Other great European cities should follow suit

Venice has had enough. It is sinking beneath the twin assaults of tourism and the sea and believes the answer lies in fending off visitors by charging...

25.04.2024 20

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

No matter how bad the Rwanda bill is, a bunch of unelected peers shouldn’t decide its fate

Almost everyone agrees the government’s Rwanda bill is a bad idea. Its effects on deterring immigration will be trivial. It fails to show that...

22.04.2024 10

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Trump’s latest drama: is it a case of true crime?

20.04.2024 50

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Guardian Opinion cartoon Martin Rowson on the temptation of Benjamin Netanyahu and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – cartoon

19.04.2024 10

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

The UK’s smoking ban is government meddling at its worst and most pointless

Just because Liz Truss and Boris Johnson – both opposed to the government’s proposed new smoking ban – hold a belief does not make it wrong....

19.04.2024 9

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Britain has no business intervening in the war in Gaza. So why did it defend Israel against Iran?

Britain’s use of its air force to defend Israel against Iran at the weekend was an emphatic intervention in the war in Gaza. It was more than...

16.04.2024 50

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Guardian Opinion cartoon Ben Jennings on Rishi Sunak’s plans to crack down on rough sleeping – cartoon

12.04.2024 9

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Waiting for this flailing government to call an election is excruciating. We need parliamentary reform

There should be a general election now. The agony of British politics is growing too much to bear. The morbidity of the Tory government is too...

11.04.2024 40

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Even its old boys are turning on the stuffy Foreign Office. They’re right to do so

Poor old Foreign Office. The imperial roar has become a squeak. All the wrong pictures adorn its walls, and the wrong attitudes its mindset. And now...

08.04.2024 40

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Scotland’s hate crime law may be well intentioned, but the police should not stymie public debate

It is right that expressions of hatred against groups based on race and ethnicity are illegal. Whether these laws have ended hatred or merely driven...

01.04.2024 10

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

I’m a Garrick member. The exclusion of women is the opposite of liberal. It is out of date and wrong

Do clubs matter? Yes, to their members, and clearly to those they exclude. When Alexis de Tocqueville compared American democracy with British, he...

27.03.2024 6

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Does China spy on Britain? Of course. But we have more important things to discuss with them

Once upon a time Britain would have sent a gunboat up the Yangtze River. That would teach those Chinese a lesson. To hear some MPs talk about...

26.03.2024 10

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Putin is a dictator and a tyrant, but other forces also sustain him – and the west needs to understand them

The west’s derisive reporting of Vladimir Putin’s election victory this week was a mark of his success. It was described as an abuse of democracy,...

22.03.2024 100

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Loyalty was once the glue that held the Tories together. But now they’ve come unstuck

There are many good reasons for Rishi Sunak to postpone a general election. All are about reducing his party’s potential loss of seats. There is...

18.03.2024 20

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Guardian Opinion cartoon Ben Jennings on rumours of Boris Johnson’s return – cartoon

15.03.2024 10

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Britain’s prison system is brutal and broken. Why does reforming it seem so impossible?

Guess which public service is hardly ever mentioned in stories about austerity? The answer is prisons. Last week, prison governors were told by the...

14.03.2024 6

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

The moral of Kate’s picture-editing debacle is simple: the royal family should tell all

Not since Trotsky vanished from the Soviet politburo portrait has photo-editing caused such a storm. What dark secrets lie behind the daughter’s...

11.03.2024 10

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Guardian Opinion cartoon Ella Baron on Jeremy Hunt’s budget – cartoon

08.03.2024 20

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Put yourself in the shoes of a Donald Trump voter – and understand what drives his success

Donald Trump is certain to be the Republican candidate in this year’s election for US president. He is also currently favourite to win. To most...

07.03.2024 6

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Nato is growing reckless over Ukraine – and Russia’s German military leak proves it

The German armed forces are mad. The leaking by Moscow of a 38-minute discussion between the head of the Luftwaffe and senior officers on sending...

05.03.2024 70

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Like a pub argument on Love Island – The Jury TV series shows all that’s wrong with Britain’s judicial system

This article contains spoilers about the final episode of The Jury: Murder Trial Should juries be abolished? Last night’s Channel 4 docudrama of a...

01.03.2024 10

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

The money Sunak ‘saves’ from HS2 seems to be shrinking with every announcement

Rishi Sunak’s high-profile announcement of projects to be apparently funded by killing the northern leg of HS2 is a gem of political cynicism. He...

26.02.2024 6

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

It’s unhenged: millions will be denied one of England’s greatest views

The most exhilarating view in Britain is to be abolished. A high court judge this week brought a 30-year battle over Stonehenge to a conclusion by...

23.02.2024 20

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

The right to roam … but you have to trespass to get there. England’s countryside rules are truly absurd

Every country walker knows the cry. Where the hell is the footpath? A right of way with no signpost is not a legal right at all. It is an invitation...

19.02.2024 30

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Let King Charles’s illness finally change how we speak about cancer: it’s not about ‘winning’ or ‘losing’ a ‘war’

King Charles has cancer. Coverage of this story in the days since the announcement has been funereal. Daily bulletins are issued. Heads of state send...

16.02.2024 30

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

The Guardian view on the digital pound: an impetuous idea with a risky momentum of its own

Two years ago, the House of Lords looked into whether the Bank of England should issue digital pounds to be held in electronic wallets. Peers were...

13.02.2024 10

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Yes, Donald Trump’s Putin comments were unhinged – but he’s right to question Nato’s future

Donald Trump is “appalling and unhinged”, says everyone. His invitation to Vladimir Putin at the weekend to invade Nato and “do what the hell he...

12.02.2024 8

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Ugly, expensive and loathed: the Slab will stand as London’s monument to government in the 2020s

The Slab is to rise after all. What is clearly intended as the most prominent office block in central London will dominate the bend in the River...

08.02.2024 10

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Guardian Opinion cartoon Ella Baron on the reopening of the Northern Ireland assembly – cartoon

06.02.2024 30

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

How to fix Britain’s crumbling NHS? Whatever you do, don’t ask a doctor

I recently asked two wise doctors, senior in their profession, what was wrong with today’s NHS. Was it money? Was it recruitment, or pay, or...

05.02.2024 10

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Northern Ireland will leave the union, and Scotland could too. True devolution is the only way to save it

Devolution is in disarray. A quarter of a century after its introduction by the Blair government, the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish constitutions...

02.02.2024 60

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Guardian Opinion cartoon Ben Jennings on Liz Truss’s criticism of Rishi Sunak’s anti-smoking plans – cartoon

30.01.2024 20

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Whisper it, but in opposing Rishi Sunak’s smoking ban, Liz Truss might be right

At least twice as many school pupils smoke cannabis as smoke tobacco. Cannabis is illegal, tobacco is legal. If legality meant anything, the figures...

29.01.2024 10

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Guardian Opinion cartoon Ben Jennings on the link between knife crime and austerity – cartoon

26.01.2024 10

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

The endgame looms for Sunak and the Tories. ‘Rwanda’ will be the epitaph on their political grave

The ship goes down and the panic starts. As the Tory party lurches towards the electoral rocks, the bridge is losing control and the crew are taking...

25.01.2024 7

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Brexit trade checks will cost £330m a year. Starmer must revisit this disastrous deal

The government is planning to increase the cost of doing business in Britain by a total of £330m a year. From the end of this month and again in...

23.01.2024 10

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Prince William should finish what Charles started – and sever the ridiculous ties between church and state

Once upon a time, news that the heir to the throne may decline his “supreme governorship” of the Church of England would have caused an...

19.01.2024 9

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

England’s secondary schools are Dickensian. No wonder children are staying away

This year’s most alarming statistic so far is that one parent in four thinks it is fine for children to skip school. Persistent absenteeism in...

08.01.2024 10

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

King Charles should follow Denmark’s example – and tell us when he’ll abdicate

The abdication of Queen Margrethe of Denmark in favour of her son Frederik is a sign of a sensible constitutional monarchy. The 82-year-old queen felt...

02.01.2024 60

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

British politics is rotting from the bottom up: pity our crisis-hit local councils

Every review of Britain 2023 says the same. The country is not being well run. From policing to care homes, from postal services to sewage spills,...

29.12.2023 10

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Guardian Opinion cartoon Ben Jennings on Michelle Mone and PPE – cartoon

18.12.2023 10

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Of course Michelle Mone should be thrown out of the Lords, but others enabled her: turf them out too

The Michelle Mone affair stinks. It shows that, under Boris Johnson, the British government was unfit for purpose, and is scarcely better today. While...

18.12.2023 10

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Guardian Opinion cartoon Ben Jennings on the problems besetting Rishi Sunak – cartoon

14.12.2023 30

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Housing policy in Britain is a chaotic shambles. Thank God for nimbys, I say

Michael Gove is right. Essential to a true democracy is the idea that local communities should have some control over their surroundings. They must...

14.12.2023 30

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Rishi Sunak’s week of chaos reflects the state of his party. There’s only one answer: an election

Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad. Future students of British politics may yet write theses on Rishi Sunak’s upcoming week. It starts...

11.12.2023 40

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Return the Parthenon marbles. The British Museum has too much stuff anyway

The Parthenon marbles row is beyond silly. Rishi Sunak screeches “Mine, mine” like a child in a playground. He refuses a cup of tea with the Greek...

29.11.2023 8

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Prepare for this general election to be the most toxic ever, thanks to Farage and Reform UK

Next year’s general election in Britain could be the most toxic in decades. Two things, Reform UK and immigration, seem certain to plague debate on...

27.11.2023 9

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

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