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Simon Jenkins

Simon Jenkins

The Guardian

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Kemi Badenoch wants to drag the Tories further right. That is a huge mistake

Politics never ends. Today the selection begins of the leader of the opposition and thus possibly the next British prime minister. The pollsters’...

29.07.2024 10

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Keir Starmer, please – scrap the distasteful weekly brawl that is PMQs

Boring. That was the universal response to Wednesday’s first prime minister’s questions of the new parliament. Where was the screaming, yelling,...

25.07.2024 7

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Kamala Harris is no dominating leader – but that may be her biggest strength

Kamala Harris is now the frontrunner to be the Democratic party’s candidate for the most powerful job in the world. She appears sorely...

22.07.2024 4

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

David Cameron failed to foist new houses on rural areas. Why does Keir Starmer think he’ll succeed?

Outside Glastonbury last month, festivalgoers might have caught sight of David Cameron’s- policy of planning de-regulation in action, sprawling...

18.07.2024 7

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

It’s worrying to see the prime minister cheerleading for war. Will Ukraine turn into Starmer’s Iraq?

When Keir Starmer entered Downing Street, a few foreign events were arranged to glamorise his arrival. He visited a Nato summit and promised to spend...

15.07.2024 20

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

He’s beaten and humiliated, but Rishi Sunak has one final job to do – for party and country

You can grieve over the bodies, the coffins, the funeral rites, but the worst aftermath of death is the autopsy. Who, or what, was to blame? Focus...

05.07.2024 10

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Labour to win, Tories to lose: but what Britain really needs is MPs free to speak their mind

For the next two years, the best job in British politics will be leader of the opposition. The first two years is usually the honeymoon period for an...

01.07.2024 6

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Message to Labour: don’t tax school fees. Make private schools work for the public good

To tax or not to tax? Labour’s plan to impose VAT on private schools seemed a good idea at the time. Its programme was bereft of leftist clout. The...

27.06.2024 8

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Farage’s Ukraine comments were hardly offensive – other party leaders could use a history lesson

Is Nigel Farage guilty as charged? An appeaser, a disgrace, an apologist for Putin, an insult to Ukraine, says a chorus of British party leaders on...

24.06.2024 10

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Come 5 July, an almighty fight looms. Keir Starmer, take on the countryside at your peril

What do Britons most love about Britain? At the last count it was still the NHS. After that it was not the royal family, the army or democracy....

20.06.2024 40

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Now we know Farage and Reform’s so-called policies. The worst thing Sunak can do is copy them

Smash him. Go for the jugular. Take the gloves off and hit him with the big one. We have nothing to lose. A sure sign of political panic is when the...

17.06.2024 9

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

A Tokyo developer will demolish a building for spoiling the view. Why doesn’t Britain care about beauty?

A Japanese developer has announced it will demolish a new tower of luxury flats in Tokyo it was weeks from completing. The reason? The 10-storey...

14.06.2024 10

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Cut Rishi Sunak some slack – his D-day blunder is hardly the worst thing he’s done

Attacks on Rishi Sunak for cutting short his attendance at the D-day commemoration have been overblown. His early return home was a presentational...

10.06.2024 10

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

I’m a floating voter. Wes Streeting has my attention, but who else has bold, radical ideas?

This is the wail of the floating voter. I start every election a deliberate floater. An open mind staves off tedium. The only alternative is going on...

08.06.2024 50

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Crowing about the Trump verdict will only hurt Biden – populists thrive on claims of persecution

“Guilty”, screamed the one-word headline in the New York Times last week, dripping with undisguised glee. Howls of contempt descended on Donald...

03.06.2024 8

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

So it’s goodbye to London’s Standard, my old paper – and to the heart of democracy, local news

They could as well have felled Big Ben, drained the Serpentine or butchered the ravens in the Tower. No more daily print edition of the Evening...

30.05.2024 80

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Our schools don’t prepare young people for life. National service could change that

Rishi Sunak’s reinvention of national service is a desperate, last-minute election gimmick. But that does not make it a bad idea. If there is one...

28.05.2024 100

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Keir Starmer offers ‘change’, ‘change’ and even more ‘change’. But that’s not the same as governing

We are told the focus groups are clear as a bell. No, Labour’s Keir Starmer is not exhilarating. No, the economy is not screaming for new...

23.05.2024 60

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Julian Assange has paid a heavy price for his leaks – the US should let him go home

The Julian Assange farce has run its time. He should be left to return to his homeland of Australia. Yet another appeal against successive British...

21.05.2024 50

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

For a bird’s eye view of British conservatism, look at sport. No wonder VAR in football is in trouble

There is one test of a true radical. It is not a quest for revolution in politics, philosophy, art or religion. The challenge lies in the realm of...

16.05.2024 60

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

Britain’s ‘most dangerous’ years lie ahead, warns Sunak. It’s cheap politics from a floundering PM

Rishi Sunak is talking rubbish to win votes. He warns today that the next few years will be among the most terrifying and “transformative” the...

13.05.2024 100

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

It’s as if misogyny was the vice that dared not speak its name at the Garrick. That cloud has now lifted

The Garrick Club’s vote this week in favour of admitting women as members mattered. It mattered – and was the subject of widespread public debate...

09.05.2024 40

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

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...

06.05.2024 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 60

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 60

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 9

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 20

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

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

20.04.2024 70

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 20

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 60

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 7

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 30

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 yes to those they exclude. When Alexis de Tocqueville compared American democracy with British, he...

27.03.2024 8

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 40

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

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

15.03.2024 7

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 10

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 10

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 100

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 5

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 10

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 20

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 50

The Guardian

Simon Jenkins

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