Simon Jenkins's Blog

Second chambers are a good idea, but they should not be able to overturn clear decisions reached by an elected body

If ever a British institution needed assistance in dying, it is the House of Lords. Its handling of the assisted dying bill on Friday of last week, continuing this week, is all but unconstitutional. A bill passed by the House of Commons after years of public debate is being blocked by a small group of peers under the pretence of scrutiny. Their purpose is to kill the bill by filibus...

The government is focused on building new homes for floating voters, while landlordism is discouraged and homes stand empty

As opera-goers trooped into the London Coliseum this week, three helpless drunks were camping on the adjacent front steps. One was struggling to stop another pulling down his trousers – or possibly helping him. In Chandos Place around the corner, half a dozen more were bedding down out of the rain. Over the road, staff at the hallowed St Martin-in-the-Fields homeless charit...

When I heard it was dumbing down education, my heart sank. In fact, it’s outspoken about the chaos of Michael Gove’s reforms and the changes needed

Schooling in Britain today is where medicine was in the days of bleeding and leeches. It is trapped in the past, between teachers wedded to their subjects and politicians obsessed with tests. Doctors generally know if they have cured you, lawyers know if you are found not guilty. Educators have only exams to measure their professional success. The res...

It’s ridiculous for the government to splurge on defence while it slashes spending on its most valuable asset: culture

The US has backed down in its tariff war with China. Thanks to Donald Trump’s egotistical diplomacy, rare earths can again flow one way, soya beans the other, and less of the chemicals used to make fentanyl in between. No matter that the war was Trump’s own idea and seems to have been a stunt. The stunt is over. Trump has played his favourite game of dealmaker, much to the discom...

It’s a fool’s game trying to understand the president’s true motives, but do our misgivings matter if the outcome is a speedy end to war?

Donald Trump is sensible and he is right. Basking in glory after his Gaza ceasefire, he was on Friday evening flying to Florida with his entourage of reporters. The drums of war were beating across Europe and Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, had pleaded with him for Tomahawk missiles. What was his reply?

Trump was clearly fed up. He had told Zelenskyy: ...

‘The Firm’ as a modernising strategy was already falling apart, but with the shocking allegations so fully in the public domain, it has now collapsed

The royal family was always a disaster waiting to happen. Its creation as a marketable entity in the 1960s by the late Queen Elizabeth II was meant to “modernise” the monarchy for the 20th century. It worked, but only up to a point. Her son Prince Andrew has long been its biggest liability, this week in trouble yet again due to his alleged behaviour...

‘The Firm’ as a modernising strategy was already falling apart, but with the shocking allegations so fully in the public domain, it has now collapsed

The royal family was always a disaster waiting to happen. Its creation as a marketable entity in the 1960s by the late Queen Elizabeth II was meant to “modernise” the monarchy for the 20th century. It worked, but only up to a point. Her son Prince Andrew has long been its biggest liability, this week in trouble yet again due to his alleged behaviour...

With British industry faltering, the excuse that the public wants this is risible. Parliament must force Starmer to act

While Keir Starmer fiddles in India, Rome burns. The British steel industry now faces a calamity so severe, insiders say it could be “terminal”. The vast majority – 80% – of its output is exported to the EU, which this week revealed plans to cut tariff-free steel import quotas by almost half. The remainder will be subject to a 50% tariff. The UK steel industry will be butchered....

They wrote off Margaret Thatcher in 1981 when the SDP – like Reform today – was ascendant. They were wrong about her; they could also be about Starmer

Party conference time is when British politics goes berserk. Leaders soar and crash in a morass of cliches. Polls go mad and cataclysm always delivers the best copy.

Thus, back in 1981, Margaret Thatcher was at her Blackpool conference, two years into office. Brixton was rioting, inflation was 11% and the Tories were polling at 23%. The Labour oppos...

The grandeur and pageantry surrounding the state visit cannot disguise the fact that we have absolutely no vision for our future

Britain has made its point. We can do the past. The rest of the world may be more powerful and richer than we are, but only Britain can embody statehood in a banquet. Only Britain can force the titans of the digital age into white tie and tails, and reduce an American president to quivering admiration.

The question is where now? Trump’s itinerary mostly avoided central L...