Simon Jenkins



Profile:
Full name: Simon Jenkins

Area of interest: Politics/media, democracy, civil rights, environment, education, architecture, London issues

Journals/Organisation: The Guardian | Evening Standard & formerly The Sunday Times

Email: [mailto:simon.jenkins@guardian.co.uk simon.jenkins@guardian.co.uk]

Personal website:

Website: Guardian.co / Simon Jenkins | Evening Standard / Simon Jenkins

Blog: Comment is free...

Representation:

Networks: https://twitter.com/#!/simonjenkins4



Biography:
About:

Education: Mill Hill School, London; Beechen Cliff School, Bath; St John's College, Oxford

Career:
 * Country Life magazine
 * Times Educational Supplement
 * Evening Standard
 * editor of the 'Insight' page of The Sunday Times
 * editor of London Evening Standard, 1976/78
 * political editor, The Economist magazine, 1979/86
 * founded and edited The Sunday Times 'Books section'
 * editor of The Times 1990/92
 * contributing blogger The Huffington Post May 2005-present
 * joined The Guardian, Summer 2005
 * rejoined the Evening Standard as columnist, January 2009

Current position/role: Columnist: The Guardian, Evening Standard


 * also writes/has written for:

Other roles/Main role:
 * Board member of British Rail, 1979/90
 * Board member of London Transport, 1984/86
 * Deputy chairman of English Heritage, 1985/90
 * Member of UK Millennium Commission, 1994/2000
 * Chair of the Independent Commission on Local Democracy, 1994/5
 * Chairman of the Buildings Book Trust
 * Member of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA)
 * Chairman, National Trust (elected July 2008) see: Maev Kennedy, The Guardian

Other activities:

Disclosures:

Viewpoints/Insight: [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/4527741/Recession-blues-Come-to-see-our-snowdrops.html ''Recession blues? Come to see our snowdrops''] - The National Trust's new chairman, Sir Simon Jenkins, praises our national treasure - by Elizabeth Grice, The Daily Telegraph, 5th February 2009

Broadcast media: Presented the Channel 4 series based on his book, England's Thousand Best Churches

Video:

Controversy/Criticism: [http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/20/rubbish-sir-simon-intellignence-snowden ''What rubbish, Sir Simon! Our intelligence agencies are not outside the law''] - Malcolm Rifkind: Real issues arise out of the Snowden affair, but British security laws keep us safe without intruding on citizens' freedoms - 21st September 2013

Awards/Honours: Knighted for his services to journalism, 2004; What the Papers Say Journalist of the Year, 1998; Columnist of the Year, 1993; Journalist of the Year, 1988; Honorary Fellowship, University of Wales, Lampeter

Scoops:

Other: Married to US actress, Gayle Hunnicutt



Books & Debate:

 * Education and Labour's axe OCLC144568, 1969
 * Here to live: study of race relations in an English town OCLC203011, 1971
 * Landlords to London: the story of a capital and Its growth OCLC1622562, 1975
 * Newspapers: The power and the money OCLC5210834, 1979
 * Newspapers through the looking-glass OCLC16550881, 1981
 * Battle for the Falklands OCLC9197447, with Max Hastings, 1983
 * With respect, ambassador: enquiry into the Foreign Office OCLC13397072, with Anne Sloman, 1985
 * The market for glory: Fleet Street ownership in the twentieth century OCLC22767658, 1986
 * "Times" English style and usage guide OCLC59942540, with Robert Ilson, 1992
 * The Selling of Mary Davies and Other Writings OCLC29472819, 1993
 * Against the grain: writings of a sceptical optimist OCLC31656598, 1994
 * Accountable to none: Tory nationalization of Britain OCLC33889133, 1995
 * England's thousand best churches OCLC42004142, 1999
 * England's thousand best houses OCLC56648979, with Quintin Wright, 2004
 * Thatcher & Sons: a revolution in three acts OCLC70401937, 2006

Latest work: Wales: churches, houses, castles OCLC 237176845, 2008

Speaking/Appearances: 2010 Mishcon Lecture

Debate: 

The Guardian:
Column name:

Remit/Info: Politics and media, democracy, civil rights, environment, education

Section: Comment & Debate

Role: Commentator

Pen-name:

Email: [mailto:simon.jenkins@guardian.co.uk simon.jenkins@guardian.co.uk]

Website: Guardian.co / Simon Jenkins

Commissioning editor:

Day published: Wednesday / Friday

Regularity: Twice weekly

Column format:

Average length: 1100 words



Articles: 2017

 * A lesson from Grenfell Tower: mourn in public, but grieve in private - The collective response demanded by disasters on this scale must not deny us the space to move on. Life must be lived forwards - 22nd June
 * The lesson from Grenfell is simple: stop building residential towers - High-rise blocks are wholly out of place and character. Rather, a modern, sociable city needs neighbourhoods - 16th June
 * I can’t believe in May or Corbyn, but the ballot is sacred. How to vote? - In an era of post-tribal politics, personalities have failed to convince me. Going into this election, the pain of choice is unavoidable - 8th June
 * Enough of Theresa May’s outrage. We need a tough response to terror - The prime minister is playing into the hands of terrorists by politicising the Manchester attack. Her job is to allay public anxiety, not promote it - 25th May
 * What did the first TV leaders’ debate reveal? Toryism’s useful idiots - May and Corbyn were not there, but they were represented. For the Tories, it was a bonanza – with four left-of-centre parties all out to take votes from Labour - 19th May
 * Mice benefit from research into cannabis. Why not us? - Instead of forging ahead with research on the benefits of cannabis, the UK criminalises millions - 11th May
 * Ukip got what it wanted. Time to disband - This single-issue party has been snuffed out by a combination of Brexit and an intransigent Theresa May – who now picks up its legacy - 6th May
 * Jeremy Corbyn should do a Bernie Sanders, and go for broke - The Labour leader has nothing to lose but the Blairite retreads who urge caution. Now is the time for him to reveal the passions that drive his politics - 4th May
 * Hipsters, heritage and Handel – how cities can escape London’s shadow - The mayors about to be elected in Birmingham and Manchester must use ‘soft power’ to get their regions on the map - 28th April
 * The last thing Britain needs from Theresa May’s manifesto is policies - Detailed promises cut and pasted are a hostage to fortune. The prime minister should give voters her priorities, but no more - 20th April
 * The prime minister goes to the country on 8 June hoping to strengthen the Conservative majority. What happens next? - For Labour the news is nothing but good - 18th April
 * The bombing of Afghanistan shows the US is led by a one-man wild card - First Syria, now Afghanistan – obscene and pointless bombings. But Donald Trump has tasted the sweet cup of war and no one seems able to control him - 14th April
 * His emotions have been stirred – but Trump’s bombs won’t help Syria - From Reagan in 1982 to Bush in 2001, there is an ignominious history of US presidents meddling in Middle Eastern affairs. It never works - 7th April
 * The best way to tackle BBC bias is make it plain for all to see - Though the corporation had a good Brexit, it must still address the narrow monoculture that skews key decisions - 6th April
 * Michael Flynn clearly has a gripping tale to tell about Trump and Russia - The former national security adviser is seeking immunity from prosecution in return for coming clean about the president’s links with Putin - 31st March
 * Britain’s treaty with Europe is dead. Time to strike a new one - The dangers to our continent eclipse even Brexit. We’re leaving the EU but will need a new forum for cooperation – perhaps the Treaty of London - 30th March
 * Media hype about the Westminster attack will only encourage others - Wednesday’s assault was a crime. The last thing we needed was our politicians and media hysterically exaggerating it - 24th March
 * The Westminster attack is a tragedy, but it’s not a threat to democracy - The terrorists’ aim is not just to kill a few but to terrify a multitude. For politicians and media to overreact would play into their hands - 23rd March
 * Independence is Scotland’s choice. May should let them get on with it - Denying Nicola Sturgeon’s demand for a second referendum is hypocritical. One day soon, there must be a new relationship between London and Edinburgh - 17th March
 * May hung Hammond out to dry over his budget U-turn - Failing to back up a minister in trouble leaves the prime minister a pushover for backbenchers with a grievance - 16th March
 * Theresa May’s tax climbdown shows her weakness - About to negotiate the Brexit rapids, the prime minister has exposed herself as vulnerable to murmuring backbenchers and howling front pages - 10th March
 * If Trump’s goal is friendship with Russia, it’s a prize worth lying for - Underhand, reckless and naive: the US president has been some, or all, of these in pursuit of a rapprochement. But might he succeed where Obama failed? - 3rd March
 * Hammond’s inheritance tax plans would be the revenge of the undead - The chancellor hopes to tackle a great taboo but the debate will soon descend into a swamp of self-interest, ideology and class war - 2nd March
 * The destruction of Britain’s high streets is no accident - This business rate crisis is the direct result of flawed policy that penalises commerce in our town centres - 23rd February
 * Yes, Donald Trump is a monster. But his agenda isn’t all bad - Insults won’t damage him – they shore up his image as a brave outsider attempting a new form of government - 16th February
 * The banana republic of Surrey has shown local council funding is broken - If Surrey’s ‘secret deal’ is to be a harbinger of a new health and care service then the whole murky world of local government funding needs rethinking - 10th February
 * People who’ve fallen through the net won’t get a home from Sajid Javid - The secretary of state for community’s plan is ill-conceived. Public money should switch to social housing – to need, and not demand - 8th February
 * Don’t let philistines wreck our urban heritage with their developments - There’s no point having conservation areas if they are not conserved. Communities secretary Sajid Javid’s Paddington cube ruling will be pivotal - 8th February
 * Why the EU’s fuss over Trump’s ambassador pick? He’s perfectly cast - The European parliament is outraged at Trump’s choice of ambassador to the EU, Ted Malloch. It’d be better off treating him as a challenge to win over - 4th February
 * We’re over the digital revolution. This is the age of experience - The web has upended all our lives. The return of books, vinyl and Kodak film shows we long to employ technology as a servant, not a master - 2nd February
 * Three cheers for the Theresa May doctrine - The PM’s foreign policy speech in the US is an outbreak of common sense. But she and Donald Trump must also articulate a coherent alternative to belligerence - 26th January
 * Post-truth politics will be debunked by online facts - Donald Trump’s lies are part of a long tradition of political mendacity that holds far fewer fears in the age of digital media - 26th January
 * Banks are moving workers, inflation is up. Project Fear is coming true - This week two big banks, HSBC and UBS, honoured their threats about moving jobs from the UK. The grim reality is ‘hard’ Brexit will be tough for many of us - 20th January
 * Poorer men are being driven out of full-time work. Here’s why - The south-east booms while other regions stagnate, and low-paid, part-time jobs proliferate – a smarter safety net is needed to remedy growing imbalances - 14th January
 * With Barack Obama’s exit the US is losing a saint. But a sinner may make a better president - If a good man like Barack Obama fails to deliver on his promises, is it inevitable that a bad man like Donald Trump will do worse? - 12th January
 * Economists have completely failed us. They’re no better than Mystic Meg - On Brexit and the 2008 crash their predictions – distorted by politics – were utterly wrong. The profession owes the public an inquest and an apology - 7th January
 * After Ivan Rogers, Britain will still need friends in Europe – and diplomats - The EU ambassador’s resignation shows that the Brexit war machine set up by Theresa May is not fit for purpose - 5th January



Articles: 2016

 * Trump’s latest tweet about nuclear weapons is both daft and dangerous - The president-elect’s promise to enlarge the US nuclear arsenal shows a woeful grasp of how the world, and wars, work today - 24th December
 * Never mind Russia – it’s the internet’s culture of lies we should be tackling - With the digital air thick with mendacity, and cyber-conflict on the rise, it’s clear that the Google/Facebook duopoly badly needs some kind of external control - 16th December
 * Pale, stale males are the last group it’s OK to vilify - My cohort already faced routine contempt. Now we find ourselves blamed for Brexit and Donald Trump - 15th December
 * The supreme court is doing MPs’ dirty work for them on article 50 - With its badly drafted legislation, parliament created this mess – and parliament should sort it out - 8th December
 * Boris Johnson may wish otherwise, but the old world order is finished - The new populism and the conflicts of the current century require fresh ways of thinking. His latest speech shows the foreign secretary is stuck in the past - 2nd December
 * Blame the identity apostles – they led us down this path to populism - With its over-defensive advocacy of minorities, the left has jeopardised half a century of liberalism - 1st December
 * Is a second referendum a bad idea? Not if we ask the right question - Any attempt to invalidate the first Brexit vote would be wrong. But that does not mean there is no need to further consult British public opinion - 25th November
 * Hammond knows Britain’s regional imbalance is risky. Why didn’t he fix it? - In the 2016 autumn statement the cities of the north have lost out, and all the spoils have gone to London and the south-east – again - 24th November
 * Rebuilding Nimrud will help atone for the sins of the west - The tragedy in Iraq results from our imposition of western values. It is our duty to make amends - 19th November
 * I’m glad cryonics is legal – we should all have rights over our bodies - A judge granted a dying teenager’s wish to be frozen in the hope she might live again. This decision was about the rights of all of us - 18th November
 * The revolution in cannabis law has begun, but Britain is stuck in the past - From California to the Baltic, the dam is breaking. Meanwhile, the British government sticks to its ‘war on drugs’, and pays the heavy price - 11th November
 * Be calm: Trump is not the worst and won’t go unchallenged - The Republican candidate won as the outsider who was going to shake Washington up – now comes the reality - 10th November
 * The judges’ ruling confirms it – Brexit must go ahead, no ifs or buts - The legal ruling may complicate the UK leaving the EU, but the referendum result was clear. And woe betide the MP or peer who stands in the way of it - 4th November
 * Amber Rudd was right to leave Orgreave in the past - Most public inquiries waste time and money. The proper place to debate public policy is parliament - 3rd November
 * Nissan got a sweetheart deal. Under hard Brexit, everyone will want one - Britain has to trade openly with Europe, and vice versa. A soft Brexit is the only way to do that, and avoid a race to the bottom - 28th October
 * The lesson from tiny Wallonia – there is a way to prevent hard Brexit - The Belgian region forced a giant EU scheme to unravel. Given the chance, Wales and Scotland could do the same - 26th October
 * Kicking Philip Green is absurd. Here’s who MPs should be castigating - The Commons wants to remove the former BHS boss’s knighthood, but what is it doing about the company’s chairman, former owner, accountants – and HMRC? - 21st October
 * Hinkley, HS2 and Heathrow show May’s team are out of their depth - These three white elephants will waste £100bn of public money. Such a cave-in to the lobbyists gives a worrying insight into those close to the prime minister - 13th October
 * Theresa May has the party’s adoration for now. That won’t last - The prime minister has crushed the Cameroons. But sidelined Tory remainers won’t be silenced for long - 6th October
 * Dismantle the child abuse inquiry and focus on learning lessons for the future - There is rightly sympathy for those who suffered in the past, but resources need to be put into child protection for today’s needs and tomorrow’s victims - 1st October
 * As long as greed governs global sport, corruption will be endemic - Everyone in football knew what Sam Allardyce was talking about. His biggest crime was to embarrass the FA - 28th September
 * Donald Trump on terror is just McCarthyism for a new age - While the Republican’s responses are hysterical, they fit with an American tradition of exploiting existential fear - 22nd September
 * Ukip’s work is done – the party should respect its victory and disband - As its conference opens, signs of purposelessness are evident as Theresa May ploughs ahead with Brexit plans and cutting immigration - 15th September
 * Our leaders are hooked on the narcotic of glory. That’s why we rush to war - Like Blair’s folly in Iraq, Cameron’s Libyan adventure was driven by a reckless craving for personal ‘victory’. National security had nothing to do with it - 15th September
 * Sanctions against North Korea have failed. End them now - As the latest nuclear test shows, economic embargos are counterproductive. Bullying will not bring change, but trade and cultural exchange just might - 9th September
 * Thatcher knew grammars were poison. Theresa May is playing a risky game - The Tories need to stop obsessing about selective education. Going backwards is not an option - 7th September
 * It’s a hard sell, but in post-Brexit Britain optimism must become a strategy - Now Project Fear has been shown to be exaggerated, Brexiters must tone down their pessimistic rhetoric too. It’s time to focus on the facts - 1st September
 * Outside meddling has unleashed horror in Syria. We must step back - Western arms and money have prolonged and intensified this civil war. Our only duties are to stop taking sides, and to help those fleeing the conflict - 26th August
 * From Timbuktu to Grimsby, heritage deserves to be restored and revered - Historic buildings possess a cultural vitality. Failing to repair them is a loss to our communal memory - 25th August
 * Jeremy Corbyn’s dismissal of Nato is a step too far - I cheered the Labour leader’s stance against Trident. But shunning our most important international military alliance is just reckless - 19th August
 * This Olympics hysteria shows that Britain has turned Soviet - We used to ridicule the communists for using sport as a proxy for economic success. Now, with the vast sums thrown at Team GB and athletes declared ‘heroes’, we’re copying them - 18th August
 * It’s easy to cheer the judge who used the C-word. But we shouldn’t - Her reaction may be understandable, but it was wrong – and sending a troubled man to prison is likely to make his problems worse - 13th August
 * Trade with China is a good thing. But Hinkley Point is a dud - Theresa May is right to resist the lobbyists and halt this reckless and absurdly expensive nuclear deal. There are far better alternatives - 11th August
 * Want to avoid recession? Then shower UK households with cash - The economy is in dire need of a jump start – cutting interest rates has failed miserably. So instead give money to people who would actually spend it - 5th August
 * Hinkley Point is bad business. Theresa May should put it out of its misery - David Cameron has bequeathed Britain the worst deal in the history of procurement. May cannot cave in like she did with Trident - 29th July
 * Denationalise the Olympics to really stamp out cheating - The IOC has become a master at marrying greed to national leaders’ hunger for Olympic prestige - 28th July
 * At least President Trump would ground the drones - After the ham-fisted military antics of the Obama years, the rest of the world could do with a jolt of good old-fashioned Republican isolationism - 22nd July
 * Theresa May’s first test is to stand up to the lobbyists - David Cameron promised and failed. From Trident and HS2 to Heathrow’s third runway and Hinkley Point C, we’re wasting billions while a select few cash in - 21st July
 * Sympathy should be our only response to the Nice terror attack - We should not pretend that any state can stop one madman in a truck. Most official responses are likely only to make things worse - 15th July
 * Theresa May took on the police but her new foes are far fiercer - As she enters the valley of the shadow of Brexit, with Boris Johnson by her side, the grim steeples of Brussels and Berlin loom ahead - 14th July
 * The Chilcot report merely proves the British love hindsight - Britain repeated the mistakes of Iraq in Afghanistan and Libya, and would have done so in Syria had David Cameron got his way. It will repeat them again soon - 8th July
 * Ignore the prophets of doom. Brexit will be good for Britain - A stale leadership class is on the way out and the property bubble will burst. I can’t see the bad news - 6th July
 * Andrea Leadsom’s pitch for the Tory leadership: our writers’ verdict - In today’s speech the Brexit campaigner outlined her vision for the Conservatives and country. How successful was she? - 4th July (Jonathan Freedland, Simon Jenkins and Deborah Orr)
 * The biggest threat of Brexit is not to the UK but to the rest of Europe - Although Britain has given itself an almighty shock, the visionary outcome of this leave vote ought to start a grand debate across the continent - 24th June
 * Beware a boring Donald Trump. He’s more dangerous than a maverick one - The presidential candidate’s outrageous traits are being toned down. It will damage his authenticity, but he might yet win - 24th June
 * Hatred is constrained in politics by formal safeguards. Social media has let it loose - Jo Cox’s killing doesn’t show that order has broken down, but when social media turns antisocial, some policing regime is urgently needed - 17th June
 * I fear German dominance. That’s why I’m for remaining in the EU - In the end, this referendum is about politics not economics. And a Britain that votes to stay in the club will wield serious clout - 16th June
 * The question terrorists love: ‘Can you guarantee safety at Euro 2016?’ - Much of the impact of modern terrorism comes from overhype. Let the security services do their jobs in France without the media propagating fear - 10th June
 * Scientists aren’t gods. They deserve the same scrutiny as anyone else - Experts preaching the ‘truth’ on healthy eating or cancer cures are not immune to the murky worlds of politics and commerce - 9th June
 * HS2: the zombie train that refuses to die - It is the most extravagant infrastructure project in British history – but nobody can say why we need it. How did HS2 ever get so far? - 7th June
 * Leave or remain – Britain’s fortunes hinge on a Europe in need of repair - After experimenting with each side’s prejudices, it is clear to me where the greatest risk to our future lies - 3rd June
 * Obama should not apologise for Hiroshima. He should heed its lessons - The best way the US president can respect the memory of Hiroshima is by examining how non-combatants ever come to be bombed - 27th May
 * London’s empty towers mark a very British form of corruption - These monoliths that dominate the skyline expose the tainted wealth that has the capital’s gullible politicians in thrall - 26th May
 * The luvvies’ Brexit letter only shows most people vote with their wallets - That our lucky stars of stage and screen benefit from the EU’s largesse should hardly be a clincher for anybody else - 20th May
 * Unless Gove cuts prison numbers, he’s doomed to fail - Michael Gove’s plans are welcome, as far as they go. But they won’t work unless the justice secretary addresses sentencing - 18th May
 * Books are back. Only the technodazzled thought they would go away - The hysterical cheerleaders of the e-book failed to account for human experience, and publishers blindly followed suit. But the novelty has worn off - 13th May
 * Fantastically crony-capitalist: that’ll be Cameron-land - It’s all very well fingering Nigeria and Afghanistan. But our war on corruption should really start with a very British predilection for tax havens and avoidance - 12th May
 * Brexit could cause war? Utter nonsense, David Cameron - Our prime minister has brought history into the EU debate, with no good reason and plenty of illiteracy - 9th May
 * The once monolithic character of UK politics continues to fracture - Local election results reflect distinctive paths being taken in devolved Scotland and Wales, but England is diversifying too - 6th May
 * Donald Trump’s triumph is a lesson for Europe’s politicians - Neglect voters at your peril, lest people turn to the deeply unattractive outsiders vying for their support - 5th May
 * Reforming schools? This is more like a doomed exercise in control freakery - Her primary testing regime has run into trouble – as, inevitably, will the rest of Nicky Morgan’s plans to turn schools into places fit only for robots - 29th April
 * The Tories’ absurd school regime can’t even set a spelling test - Bypassing local authorities was always going to end in trouble and, lo and behold, an exam has been published online - 22nd April
 * Here is the news: it’s usually bad – and that’s bad for us - I used to believe that the media’s diet of misery was good for the morale of ordinary people. Not any more - 21st April
 * Why Countryfile is the most political show on TV - This is a programme that both celebrates country life and holds it to account. Now it has an 8 million-strong constituency – David Cameron, take note - 19th April
 * Will Obama’s Brexit intervention make a difference? - The US president has declared his support for the remain camp. But Britons might not like outsiders meddling in their politics - 15th April
 * Ignore ministers’ sex lives – focus on their incompetence - No Walpole, no Churchill: imagine the damage our hyprocrisy mania would have done to our history - 14th April
 * As a taxpayer, David Cameron is innocent. As a lawmaker, he is guilty - It’s reasonable to try to keep your tax bill down – but not when you’re a British prime minister who turns a blind eye to offshore tax avoidance on a vast scale - 7th April
 * Yes to press freedom, but must we use it to expose people's sex lives? - Why I support, albeit reluctantly, the Sun on Sunday and the Daily Mail over the right to reveal the identities of celebrities who have secured a court gag - 7th April
 * On Brexit, gender, age and political party are no guide as to how we’ll vote - With so many facts about Europe’s future unknown, voters are making choices based on gut instinct - 31st March
 * After Palmyra, the message to Isis: what you destroy, we will rebuild - Islamic State’s orgy of destruction is over, but the Syrian city’s ancient heritage can be restored with 3D technology - 29th March
 * The scariest thing about Brussels is our reaction to it - Paranoid politicians, sensational journalists – the Isis recruiting officers will be thrilled at how things have gone since their atrocity in Belgium - 24th March
 * Our response to the Brussels bombings requires patience and restraint - Blanket media coverage and calls for revenge just fuel the cycle of violence - 22nd March
 * How convincing was David Cameron’s Commons statement? - Cameron tossed his critics aside with consummate skill - 22nd March
 * Migration is a fact of life – yet our deluded leaders try and turn back the tide - David Cameron’s inhumane plan to send refugees back to Libya won’t work. Movement of people can’t be stopped, it has to be managed - 18th March
 * George Osborne is a Roman emperor indulged in all his follies and fads - As the chancellor delivered his eighth budget, we saw the hazards of a politician grown overmighty - 17th March
 * There’s no such thing as imperialism-lite, Obama. Libya has shown that once again - The US president thinks Britain’s to blame for not doing enough in 2011. But while David Cameron and Obama make up, chaos continues in the Middle East - 11th March
 * Our fixation with maths doesn’t add up - Politicians tell us it is the pre-eminent subject. Nonsense. They’re just obsessed with measuring, targetry and control - 10th March
 * The EU referendum has given the Tories a nasty attack of the Trumps - David Cameron was meant to have detoxified his party of its Brussels plague. But the disease is back – and it’s worse than ever - 4th March
 * Healthy towns alone won’t cure the ills of urban planning - Forget the concept of 10 new wellness communities – we should be improving life in the cities we’ve already got - 3rd March
 * Fear and failure flow through the BBC’s hardened corporate arteries - What the Jimmy Savile report exposes most clearly is the intimate relationship between size and disaster in institutions - 26th February
 * While London rides the Crossrail gravy train, the north is stuck in reverse - Vanity megaprojects in the capital like the Elizabeth line and HS2 always win Whitehall battles, and can only spell doom for provincial spending - 25th February
 * The pope should beware of criticising Trump. The church has its own walls and damnations - Faith and politics are a vexed mixture. At least Donald Trump is seeking a democratic route to office – who elected Pope Francis? - 19th February
 * This EU referendum doesn’t matter. But the next one will - A no vote could precipitate the sort of reform Europe is crying out for. Surely that’s what everyone wants - 18th February
 * Gravitational waves may help us answer the biggest question of all - Humanity’s biggest question has always been: ‘How did it all start?’ Proving Albert Einstein’s hypothesis means we are edging ever closer to the answer - 12th February
 * Our adoration is killing the NHS. It needs tough love - Archaic demarcations between GPs, consultants and nurses are wasting billions. These have to go - 11th February
 * Welcome to the Syrian peace conference that will prolong the war - The reality in Syria is grim: President Assad is going nowhere, and the west’s continuing intervention only gives hope and aid to the losing side - 5th February
 * The removal of road markings is to be celebrated. We are safer without them - It’s clear there are fewer accidents when drivers are trusted not to kill themselves, and each other. Assuming we need constant protection is the mark of a controlling state - 4th February
 * Zika’s greatest ally is human intransigence - Mosquitoes spread the virus, but a slow response from the WHO and the Catholic church’s attitude to birth control make fighting it much harder - 29th January
 * After Litvinenko, more sanctions against Russia would be pointless – and hypocritical - Killing one’s enemies abroad is odious, be they in London or Syria. But economic action would only strengthen Putin and hurt the Russian people - 22nd January
 * The free market works, but not when it comes to schools - Our education system is becoming an inefficient, socially segregated mess – all because central government stripped councils of their powers - 15th January
 * Renew Trident? It’d make more sense to put Dad’s Army on the case - It’s bizarre that Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour opponents have chosen this useless nuclear missile for their battleground - 14th January
 * The state needs to butt out of our drinking habits - These absurd new UK guidelines on how much alcohol we should drink are patronising and will have negligible effect on people’s health - 8th January



Articles: 2015

 * Farage must go? While he dominates the immigration debate, it’s unlikely - Douglas Carswell wants Ukip’s leader to step aside. But Nigel Farage strikes a chord with so many that such a move would be folly before the EU referendum - 19th December
 * Tim Peake’s space mission is sheer political vanity - Like Major Tim I always wanted to go into space - but I never thought the state should pay for the ticket. These astronomical sums would be better spent elsewhere - 17th December
 * Bombs and guns won’t beat us, but our own hysteria will - The terrorists can only win by sowing fear and confusion. Our leaders are falling into their trap - 10th December
 * Oldham West’s victory gives Jeremy Corbyn a chance to smile - Jim McMahon swept to byelection triumph, but the result also marks the Labour leader’s first electoral test; one where the Tories were beaten into third place - 5th December
 * It’s Cameron, not Corbyn, who is the terrorist appeaser - If the prime minister were really concerned about Isis, he’d come up with a coherent military strategy - 3rd December
 * Cameron’s drive to bomb Syria is macho, foolish and must be stopped - Labour has the power to prevent us getting into a conflict we cannot resolve. Jeremy Corbyn, for once, has got it right - 27th November
 * Another big corporation is flagrantly dodging tax. This must be outlawed - Companies such as Pfizer, whose deal with Allergan allows it to relocate to Ireland, should be forced to pay their fair share. A crackdown on tax havens would be a start - 24th November
 * From militant doctors to angry lawyers, professionals are the new union barons - Modern technology is eroding deference to those once seen as pillars of society. They must adapt to survive - 19th November
 * Terror can only succeed with our cooperation - The warlike response to the Paris massacre by western governments, the media and the rest of the world has answered the dreams of Islamic State - 17th November
 * Would Osborne really let councils decide on Sunday trading? - The chancellor’s plan for longer Sunday hours gets one thing right: devolving power to communities to decide for themselves. If he really means it - 11th November
 * The surveillance bill is as big a threat to state security as to individual liberty - Nothing digital is secure, so the massive proposed extension of state powers in the ‘snooper’s charter’ could backfire - 5th November
 * Tales of hi-vis New York chicanery from Osborne’s favourite author - If the chancellor really aspires to emulate Robert Moses and Lyndon Johnson, the subjects of Robert Caro’s biographies, we should be worried - 29th October
 * The tax credits vote shows why Cameron should act on Lords reform - The place to vote down unpopular policy is the Commons, not the Lords. This constitutional breach matters – and presents Cameron with his opportunity - 27th October
 * England’s churches can survive – but the religion will have to go - The buildings are beautiful, but too many remain empty. They will regain their focus only if they convert to a communal role - 23rd October
 * What if the Chinese were to ‘raise human rights’ with us? - The British could pretend to care about China’s human rights, but it would be impolite, pointless, hypocritical and probably counter-productive - 20th October
 * The EU is a sham. Vote no to let a new Europe take root - Cameron’s battle for reform is a lost cause. Britain should walk out to secure the deal we really want - 15th October
 * The No 10 handover has begun – and Osborne’s rivals have a target - David Cameron may want his friend to succeed him, but he and George Osborne now have quite separate agendas - 8th October
 * Crisis, what housing crisis? We just need fresh thinking - Here are the most damaging myths about the policy issue that’s on everyone’s lips – and a few brutal realities - 1st October
 * Why the west should listen to Putin on Syria - As everyone knows, the only way to stop the slaughter in Syria is for the US and its allies to work with President Assad – and to stop worrying about what looks good - 29th September
 * With Hinkley Point, squandermania has reached dangerous new heights - George Osborne is signing IOUs for megastructure projects on behalf of future British taxpayers – and yet no one dares call him to account - 24th September
 * Pigs to peerages: Lord Ashcroft’s act of revenge shows British politics at its venal worst - Cameron’s use of the House of Lords to reward aides, cronies and donors might leave even Tony Blair astonished. Why not just sell off titles to fund political parties? - 22nd September
 * Bombing is immoral, stupid and never wins wars. Syria is the latest victim - Despite thousands of innocent deaths, the use of drones has done nothing to halt the Taliban or al-Qaida. If David Cameron must intervene in Syria, ground troops are the only course - 18th September
 * Why Jeremy Corbyn’s wait-and-see stance on EU membership makes sense - David Cameron has promised fundamental reforms – but until that’s clear the Labour leader has reserved judgment on the referendum. At least this continues debate for a divided electorate - 15th September
 * If this is the best Britain can do for refugees, it’s sickening - For someone who trumpeted the ‘big society’, David Cameron knows little of charity on the ground - 10th September
 * Cameron justifies the drone strike in Syria: is this his WMD moment? - British Isis fighters are killed in an unprecedented attack. The prime minister’s explanation smacks of Tony Blair’s rationalisation of military action in Iraq - 9th September
 * To Farage the opportunist, the EU referendum is his chance for glory - Britain’s membership of the EU is essentially about immigration, according to Ukip, so what better time for Farage to assert that we should go it alone? - 1st September
 * Labour has outstanding leaders. It’s a shame that they are all in the regions - There is a clear way for the Labour party to progress; it must open up its primaries to talented regional politicians - 27th August
 * Our lust for Chinese investment has caught us out, Ashley Madison-style - Sneaking off to China to beg for political investment in vanity projects that no European would touch is no route to economic recovery - 25th August
 * We are slaves to the printed word, but only handwriting conveys real beauty - The curriculum downgrades cursive writing. But the pen can communicate meaning lost on a screen - 20th August
 * The answer to drugs in athletics? Have two races: doped and clean - Performance drugs seem rife among athletes. Let’s all stop pretending, legalise doping and end the corruption - 18th August
 * The angst over milk is about the future of our countryside - The dairy farmers protesting against supermarkets are victims of a metropolitan politics which has turned their world into a fear-ridden battleground - 14th August
 * We don’t need exams to be a grand national teenage bake-off - Success at school has very little to do with success in life – whatever the ‘system’ would like you to believe - 11th August
 * How easy it is to convict the dead and defenceless - The case against Edward Heath looks flimsy, but already the gutter is being dredged for lurid, unsubstantiated claims - 6th August
 * China’s schools are testing factories. Why is Britain so keen to copy them? - Our government seems determined to move towards the Chinese style of hothousing pupils, just as China is waking up to the folly of such methods - 4th August
 * To save lions like Cecil, let hunters have their way - Big game hunts outrage the west, but South Africa shows that sustainable ranching is more effective than bans - 31st July
 * When it comes to corruption, Britain really should shut up - David Cameron’s sudden passion for transparency comes after five years of buy-to-leave property purchasing, lobbying and a visit to Kazakhstan’s dictator - 29th July
 * Harriet Harman took the only sensible decision on the welfare bill - If Labour had voted against the welfare package as a whole, she would have walked into the irresponsibility trap set by the Tories and hamstrung any future leader - 21st July
 * When it comes to tax spending, Pluto will always beat prisons - Stephen Hawking’s right: we explore because we’re human. But those who shout the loudest will get the most money, regardless of the social dividend - 17th July
 * With her cynical foxhunting vote, Sturgeon has joined the Westminster club - The decision to vote on an English matter in order to spite David Cameron is parliamentary game-playing of the kind the SNP claims to despise - 14th July
 * Telling British tourists to flee Tunisia rewards terrorism - The security hysteria of politicians such as Philip Hammond, our foreign secretary, is the only thing that poses an ‘existential threat’ to Britain - 10th July
 * The Garrick Club’s vote to keep women out is sad rather than sexist - With an average age of around 70, the lovely old Covent Garden building is more a daycare centre than a club. Does it matter that its members want a male-only enclave? - 7th July
 * This Heathrow report got Cameron off the hook. But it won’t be the last word - Howard Davies thinks a trickle-down effect from the airport will benefit the whole country. This clearly cannot be - 1st July
 * Why do we keep giving terrorists exactly what they want? - The fear-fuelled reaction to the Tunisia attacks by the UK government and media alike glamorises the crimes and only encourages others to emulate them - 30th June
 * HS2 has just claimed its first victim: the rail upgrades we so badly need - As Network Rail’s investment plan grinds to a halt, HS2 is more of a wild extravagance than ever. Put it on ice and the money where it is actually needed - 26th June
 * Refugees: this is the human tide the west doesn’t want - The global crisis engendered by people fleeing war seems unstoppable. But open borders carry an unacceptable political price for national governments - 19th June
 * Appointing a ‘low-level disruption’ school tsar is stupid government - Education secretary Nicky Morgan’s meddling has reached ludicrous levels with the creation of a new Whitehall overlord tasked with tackling slightly bad behaviour - 17th June
 * America curbs state snooping, Britain gives the green light - As the US Congress passes a Freedom Act, the grip of the UK’s securocrats on ministers is clearer than ever - 4th June
 * HS2 is not a useless railway, merely the stupidest - The election was in no way a massive vote of confidence for Cameron’s vanity high-speed project. It’s time for the Tories to admit their mistake - 2nd June
 * A hero of the Fifa corruption exposé – step forward the British press - Journalist Andrew Jennings and the Sunday Times have been relentless in their pursuit of the institutional corruption at Fifa. Now it’s up to the FA to act - 29th May
 * Poor David Cameron is now prisoner of all his promises - The Queen’s speech suggests that the prime minister regrets his moment of pre-election passion and is left wondering what he promised - 28th May
 * Cameron’s bid for special treatment in Europe is a phenomenal gamble - Germany and France talking up eurozone convergence plays to Britain’s Eurosceptics. Few of Cameron’s fellow European leaders would dare take this risk - 27th May
 * The moral of the gay wedding cake row: the law can’t create tolerance - This tale of patisserie and prejudice is a grim comment on Britain’s long and incompetent custodianship of Northern Ireland - 21st May
 * Talent is talent – England needs Kevin Pietersen - The cricketer’s 326 for Surrey marks him out as one of the greats of his age. But, unlike Nigel Farage, it seems he won’t be allowed to rise from the ashesThe cricketer’s 326 for Surrey marks him out as one of the greats of his age - 12th May
 * Let David Cameron have his moment of glory. The plotters await - In spite of this triumph, the PM will find it harder to keep his own party in order than he did with Nick Clegg - 9th May
 * We feel for the Libyans and Nepalese, but British charity stops at Calais - Our sympathy for those hit by disaster is limited. Refugees heading to our shores won’t be welcomed - 7th May
 * This election may prove the death of the union – so be it - There’s no issue of legitimacy for the next government, whether it relies on the SNP or not. But whoever wins will almost certainly have to let Scotland go - 5th May
 * For Nepal’s sake, don’t bulldoze the ruins. Rebuild these exquisite shrines - Ancient sites like Kathmandu matter. The cult of authenticity should not get in the way of restoration - 30th April
 * Cuba has shown us that sanctions don’t work – so why keep using them? - 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 - 16th April
 * Labour’s new message: vote Tory for financial recklessness - Ed Miliband’s response to the panicky Conservative pledge to find £8bn for the NHS suggests a more mature approach to public finances - 13th April
 * The Tories must stamp on the leech of non-dom status – before Labour does - The time to abolish this shameful tax anachronism is long overdue. The only question is: why has it taken successive governments so long? - 9th April
 * Let’s salute Nick Clegg’s final voyage as the good ship Lib Dem sinks - Nick Clegg cannily played the role of kingmaker in the last parliament and got a cabinet full of Lib Dems and a coalition that lasted. But it’s all over now - 31st March
 * Britain is as tribal now as it has been for millennia - A new study confirms that the people of England are largely of Germanic origin. But it fails to answer the question of when they really came - 23rd March
 * Bring on the pharmacists – the first step to saving the NHS - The NHS’s problem isn’t a lack of money, it’s an abundance of restrictive practices. So putting pharmacies in GP surgeries is just the start we need - 17th March
 * Was David Cameron furious? Was Margaret Hodge rude? Maybe, but we need our leaders to lose it - We can’t always worry about politicians ‘setting a bad example’ - they have to offer an outlet for popular anger - 12th March
 * Terror is not as big a threat to British values as the hysterical response to it - Philip Hammond attacks Isis ‘apologists’, but scaremongering politicians, a greedy security industry and reckless media all carry heavy responsibility too - 10th March
 * Let’s move Westminster to Manchester, and reclaim democracy - Parliament is unfit for purpose, physically and ethically. A change of location could jolt politics into the 21st century - 6th March
 * Whether in June or November, Qatar’s World Cup is about death and money - Fifa remains corrupt to the core. The FA could ban its players from taking part in so dishonest a tournament, but it doesn’t have the guts - 24th February
 * Yes, Peter Oborne, ads hurt press freedom. But the alternative is worse - A searing indictment of the Telegraph’s HSBC reporting underlines the critical balance between holding readers’ faith and staying in business - 19th February
 * Yes, David Cameron, Britain needs a pay rise – so cough up - Cameron’s been happily giving the banks handouts for years. How about bailing out the public sector and bonuses for welfare recipients, too? - 10th February
 * Greece’s new finance minister looks like a normal person – how refreshing - With his casual shirt and jeans, Yanis Varoufakis is throwing down the gauntlet to the established European banking order - 3rd February
 * Page 3’s demise smacks of censorship - The Sun’s Page 3 was about as arousing as an ankle at a Victorian dance. It has outlived its editorial purpose. Yet sex still sells - 20th January
 * The Labour party of my dreams would stand up for poorer people. Where is it? - The nation surely deserves a party of the left – and a real choice when it goes to the polls - 15th January
 * Cancer drugs will always be emotive but the government is right to restrict them - First thoughts: Drug companies and critically ill patients cannot be left to dictate how the NHS allocates its scarce resources - 13th January
 * Charlie Hebdo: Now is the time to uphold freedoms and not give in to fear - Terrorists can kill and maim, but they cannot topple governments. We must not hand them victory by treating this massacre as an act of war - 8th January
 * The NHS can't survive without payment for frontline treatments - First thoughts: Rationing supply of care by payment may offend tradition, but rationing by chaos is cruel - 6th January



Articles: 2014

 * Heroes of 2014: Dylan Thomas, a poet brought back to life - He may have died in 1953, but the BBC dramatisation of Under Milk Wood brought Thomas’s work afresh to a 21st-century audience - 27th December
 * We must heed calls for self-rule, or the union is doomed - The UK is stumbling chaotically down the path to disintegration, guided by an inept Westminster - 19th December
 * Britain will learn nothing by trying to emulate China’s schools - It was a myth that Beijing perfected the art of teaching. The nation’s success has little to do with maths - 11th December
 * In publishing the CIA torture report, the US is taking a brave step - First thoughts: It took more than a decade but US citizens will now have an idea of what was done in their name post 9/11. Britain still awaits the Chilcot report on Iraq - 10th December
 * Britain and the US must help mend the Syrian refugee crisis they helped create - Western powers were quick to back military action in the Middle East. Now food aid has run out they urgently need to step up the humanitarian response - 2nd December
 * Andrew Mitchell was hoist by the paranoid establishment's own petard - First thoughts: The former chief whip lost his rag when confronted by sheer bureaucratic idiocy, but it is politicians who are behind our extravagant security-industrial complex - 28th November
 * We should cash-bomb the people - not the banks - Juncker’s new fund will do little to head off Europe’s lost decade, as Friedman and Keynes would agree - 26th November
 * Big supermarkets may be dying but they leave a plague on the landscape - Shuttered out-of-town retail stores will languish and become the coalition's most visible legacy to the British environment - 21st November
 * Ignore the value of beauty and vandalism is the result - We lack the language to articulate our love of landscape and buildings. That's why they are at risk under this government - 13th November
 * Our addiction to criminalising human behaviour makes a mockery of private responsibility - From drinking while pregnant to urinating on a war memorial, the law’s ambition has no limits - 7th November
 * Is Ukip the only party that cares about the British countryside? - Using brownfield sites for new homes and offices shouldn't be a question of left or right: our rural environment must be preserved - 6th November
 * Ministers high on their war on drugs need a speedy cure - A psychology of macho law-making dominates British drugs policy – in defiance of both public opinion and common sense - 1st November
 * Pavements are risky public spaces – David Cameron has to live with that - First thoughts: The Leeds jogger who jostled Cameron has shown it's impossible to protect anyone who wants to lead a reasonably normal life - 28th October
 * Can England really walk the road to devolution? - The Tories must offer more than words if they are serious about giving local councils more power - 24th October
 * Oscar Pistorius should not be going to jail - First thoughts: Pistorius's life is ruined. No one will be deterred by his sentence. Imprisonment is a brutalist response that achieves nothing in such cases - 21st October
 * Post-Scotland vote, a grand convention on devolution is needed - politicians keep out - Ministers pledged the moon to Scotland but can’t and won’t deliver with the English question muddying the waters - 14th October
 * Bombing Isis fails war’s most critical imperative, so where is the opposition? - Terrified to be seen as weak, our political leaders have backed a half-war they have no capacity to end - 10th October
 * The National Crime Agency would take us back to Soviet-style surveillance - First thoughts: There is no threat to national security that justifies the kind of erosion of civil liberties suggested by the NCA chief Keith Bristow - 7th October
 * We should reform council tax – not impose Ed Balls's ludicrous mansion tax - Extending council tax bands – as in Wales – would be fairer. But Balls rejects it because he is a Westminster politician - 3rd October
 * Why scare stories about disappearing wildlife do matter - First thoughts: I may not care if the gibbon or the viper become extinct. But as humans, we need reminding of our relationship with nature so we can choose how to act - 30th September
 * Britain’s involvement in the new Iraq war is a doomed and dangerous gesture - With no proper strategy, the return to conflict will only reinforce the politics of fear that is the grimmest legacy of the Blair era - 26th September
 * US air strikes against Isis will only escalate violence - David Cameron should not follow Barack Obama’s lead and commit to air strikes in Syria – halfhearted wars don’t achieve anything - 24th September
 * Devolution of the NHS could be next - First thoughts: Eventually the reckless promises and thrown money will dry up, and a new generation bred on the expectation of choice may welcome the break-up of the health service - 16th September
 * What Stonehenge needs is a tidy-up - I find the stones as they are rather dull. We rebuild churches and cathedrals – why not make the circle complete, as Stonehenge once was? - 12th September
 * Scotland has been promised devo supermax, but divorce will still happen - London is spooked and is suddenly doling out more powers to Edinburgh, but I wouldn’t trust an inch of what is on offer - 8th September
 * Scottish independence: A yes vote will produce a leaner, meaner Scotland - The no campaign offers merely stasis. Even with devo max, Scots would remain in political shackles. It's time to break - 5th September
 * While Nato swills champagne, it's Putin who calls the shots - First thoughts: This week's lavish Nato summit won't change the fact that it has been outmanoeuvred and humiliated in Ukraine by a puffed-up Putin - 3rd September
 * I want my rulers chosen on merit, but care more about how they rule - The distribution of power, rather than its social makeup, is what counts. Only a constitutional revolution can dent the great British establishment - 29th August
 * Bank holidays: end these annual festivals of misery - First thoughts: The rainiest, coldest summer holiday for ages underlines one simple fact: these outdated days off come at the wrong times of year, and should be scrapped- 26th August
 * Britain's focus in Iraq should be humanitarian, not military - We should always help people whose lives are blighted by wars, but we should not pretend to fight those wars for them - 22nd August
 * How can Chris Grayling deny our prisons crisis? - First thoughts: Successive prisons inspectors sound the alarm about our overcrowded, violent jails, but British politicians don't want to kick the habit - 19th August
 * The case for Trident is absurd. Scotland may help us get rid of it - Prestige, not defence, is the only reason to keep this £100bn albatross. We may yet give thanks for Alex Salmond's posturing - 15th August
 * Robin Williams: the sadness of a clown that couldn’t be fixed - First thoughts: Williams, like many others, struggled with addiction and personal demons. Mental illness is a great leveller – but is still too little understood - 13th August
 * Why computer science graduates can’t talk themselves into jobs - Maths and science graduates are victims of a dirigiste British education policy that fails both labour market and individual - 7th August
 * 1914: the Great War has become a nightly pornography of violence - The centenary has been seized as a military propaganda opportunity. So-called lessons learned have been ignored or forgotten - 5th August
 * To mock President Putin's pride and test his paranoia is folly - The downing of flight MH17 was clearly an accident. This tragedy should not be used as an excuse to punish Russia - 25th July
 * Tony Blair sees his millions as modest – only in the world of the super rich - First thoughts: The Blairs seem to crave money because it is there. As the gap between the wealthy few and the rest widens, their fortune is hard to justify - 23rd July
 * Blanket digital surveillance is a start. But how about a camera in every bathroom? - The Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act needs strengthening. Only terrorists and paedophiles can object. The House stands ready to act - 18th July 2014
 * William Hague’s foreign office era: subdued and subservient - First thoughts: The departing foreign secretary was a former Tory star who descended into empty cliche and belligerence - 15th July
 * How should we understand the teenage jihadists' mind? - Their threat is exaggerated, but even in liberal Britain many youngsters seem to be lured by the most authoritarian edicts of the Qur'an - 11th July
 * This Grand Inquisition won't find 'the truth' of child sex abuse - Theresa May's effort to deflect accusations of a cover-up over child sex crimes will do little to deter abusers or help victims - 9th July
 * Stealth bombs? Killer plagues? Don't panic, just follow the money - Politicians and scientists have a vested interest in propagating panic: it's the one superbug there's no known antidote for - 4th July
 * Northern cities need more than 'powerhouse' rhetoric - Half-hearted localism won't help. Big business, arts and the media must move out of the capital to rebalance the economy - 2nd July
 * High-speed 3? These mega-projects are the quack remedies of modern politics - George Osborne's high-speed rail line across the Pennines is a pipedream. He should free northern cities to build their own head of steam - 26th June
 * The scaremongering has begun. Isis is no threat to Britain - First thoughts: Liam Fox, MI6 and co are preparing the ground for more military intervention and greater powers for GCHQ – spuriously justified by the fear of returning jihadists - 23rd June
 * Further military intervention in Iraq? The very idea beggars belief - The yearning to bomb someone, if only to send a message, shows how western politics remains stuck in the age of Homer - 18th June
 * The only silver lining over Iraq is rapprochement between the US and Iran - Perhaps America's need for help will usher in an era of greater respect for the integrity and sovereignty of foreign states - 16th June
 * In Rio and Manaus Fifa's racketeers will show they are the only game in town - The English FA should quit the thieves who run this obscene World Cup. But Blatter can relax: chauvinism will, as always, come first - 13th June
 * The Trojan horse row shows the failure of Michael Gove's centralism - Wielding the blundering cudgels of Whitehall is not the answer. These schools must be governed through local accountability - 10th June
 * Secret justice may be right for Putin's Russia – but not peacetime Britain - Judges have become co-opted into the security apparatus, bartering liberty for an assumed safety - 6th June
 * Cleanse Fifa of corruption by leaving it, not playing along - We've danced to Blatter's tune for too long. Britain, the birthplace of football, should set up a rival body – if only we had the guts - 4th June
 * Scotland's new era beckons, regardless of how it votes in a stupid referendum - Ultimately, there is little to choose between the devo-max pledged by unionist parties and what Alex Salmond offers - 30th May
 * Nick Clegg is paying the price for being king of compromise - The Lib Dems' EU election trouncing shows they would have been better off leaving the Tories in minority government - 28th May
 * Forced into a supranational straitjacket, European voters have rebelled - First thoughts: With barely half the continent now in favour of union, EU leaders can no longer ignore the writing on the wall - 27th May
 * How much gory detail do we need the Iraq war inquiry to publish? - Iraq was a grand folly, but the official report must still observe the boundary between privacy and disclosure - 23rd May
 * Housing crisis? No, just a very British sickness - The daily calls to build new homes are based on meaningless data, with little reference to actual demand or existing stock - 21st May
 * A vote for Ukip is a vote against Europe, nothing more - First thoughts: Nigel Farage has skewered these elections by making them about a point of view rather than a political party
 * Renewable energy won't rid us of the horrors of coal - The Turkish disaster has brought home the grave costs of mining. But hysteria-led policies will only make matters worse - 15th May
 * Ed Miliband must give up his love of state intervention - The Labour leader's stance on AstraZeneca is beyond silly. He needs a route map to cash in on the coalition's chaos - 14th May
 * Ukraine should be left to forge its own course - First thoughts: key principle of liberal politics is self-determination. Step forward the people of Ukraine – not Washington or London - 12th May
 * Why mighty Yorkshire is another country in waiting - The proud county of Yorshire can go one better than 'minority' Cornwall. After years of London centralisation, it's payback time - 9th May
 * Small is beautiful. The NHS needs to be broken up - Our once-revered health service is now a national scandal. After so many failed reforms, it's clear that central control no longer works - 7th May
 * Blood transfusions rejuvenate mice. Could they do the same for humans? - Research showing that injecting old mice with the blood of young mice revives them could be a giant step for human immortality - 6th May
 * Schools are held hostage by politicians' control-freakery - Local authorities are effective guarantors of educational standards. Gove, Hunt and Blunkett need to get out of the way - 1st May
 * Vision of the future or criminal eyesore: what should Rio do with its favelas? - Despite the looming World Cup and Olympics, constitutional reform and powerful drug lords have kept redevelopment of Rio’s squatter settlements at bay – but the price is poverty and anarchy - 1st May
 * The problem isn't Ukip, it is Europe - David Cameron has fallen into the same trap as John Major. Now the politics of citizen identity lurks everywhere - 1st May
 * Of all Catholic rituals, canonisation is nonsense - First thoughts: So former popes John XXIII and John Paul II are now saints for their 'miracles'. At such times I sympathise with intelligent Catholics - 29th April
 * Save Syria's bombed buildings from the Unesco ruin fetishists - The cultural tragedy that is the bombing of Syria's ancient monuments would be compounded if they are not rebuilt - 18th April
 * How George Osborne defied stereotype and triumphed - For a chancellor four years into office after presiding over the worst slump since the war, his popularity is remarkable - 16th April
 * Nigel Farage – a natural Tory on course to drive the Tories from power - The Ukip leader is a gadfly who will one day go to ground. But before then it is Cameron, not Miliband, who has most to fear from his sting - 4th April
 * There was only one loser in this Royal Mail privatisation: the taxpayer - The Treasury was badly advised on the sale, relying on firms accused of unethical practices and corporate greed - 2nd April
 * The IPCC report takes us from alarmism to adaptation - First thoughts: The landmark climate change study should silence the doubters, and steers us towards calm – if urgent – debate on how we act - 31st March
 * Yes, they can be mavericks, but we need whistleblowers like Edward Snowden - Call them weird, snitches, or friends of any enemy. Yet without these saints the world would be a worse place - 27th March
 * Crimea: all this virile cold war talk won't force Vladimir Putin to slink back - As the most potent symbol of Russia's lost glory, Crimea will never be returned to Ukraine. The west must accept this - 26th March
 * If Labour wants to get elected, its thinktanks should think again - First thoughts: Calling on Ed Miliband to deliver 'transformative change' and a 'holistic approach' will achieve nothing. To win, Labour must deploy specifics, not platitudes - 24th March
 * Tourism overwhelms the world's historic places, but pays no dues - As Venice overturns a ban on giant cruise liners, it is clear that the places people flock to are incapable of preserving themselves - 21st March
 * Budget 2014: George Osborne, it's not your job to look after the very rich - Britain will always have a wealth gap. What's shocking is how governments conspire in its obscene unfairness - 19th March
 * Ebbsfleet as a brave new dawn for the garden city? Don't make me laugh - First thoughts: George Osborne's announcement that 15,000 new homes at Ebbsfleet can help solve the housing crisis is pie in the sky - 17th March
 * To plug the north-south gap, the only way is Manchester - Bolstering the north's biggest city would help provincial England to challenge London's privilege and dominance - 14th March
 * The west's do-somethings will do nothing for Ukraine - The response to Crimea shows just how easily misjudgment can emerge from political machismo and belligerent posturing - 12th March
 * Labour's jobs promise: the wrong sort of command economy - First thoughts: The policy is too general – jobs need to be created away from the overheated south in the still-depressed Midlands and north - 10th March
 * Helen Suzman deserves her tribute alongside Nelson Mandela - The forgotten saint of the anti-apartheid movement, her legacy to liberalism was to abandon the armchair - 7th March
 * Ukraine has revealed the new world of western impotence - Behind the self-righteous bluster on Russia, all our leaders can do to punish Putin is cancel summits, school places and shopping trips - 5th March
 * The Oscar Pistorius trial is no place for Hollywood drama - First thoughts: There is a danger that allowing television and radio into the courtroom will cloud judgment. Justice does not demand infinite openness - 3rd March
 * Politics, not law, has become the master of British justice - From amnesties for the IRA to calls for the Woolwich murderers to be lynched, crime and punishment is now a politicised mess - 28th February
 * Maidan, Ukraine … Tahrir, Egypt … the square symbolises failure, not hope - The lesson of Egypt for Ukraine is that defiant crowds may destroy an old regime – but they seldom build a new one - 26th February
 * How Putin plays the crisis in Ukraine will decide his fate - First thoughts: The Sochi Games are over and now the Russian president must deal with the uprising in Kiev – but as a statesman or a bully? - 24th February
 * How much is it costing to scare British taxpayers into paying for HS2? - In what amounts to an abuse of democracy, lobbyists are being used to put the case for an absurd project few really want - 21st February
 * For Britain's pupils, maths is even more pointless than Latin - Our ministers remain gripped by the cult of maths. But China's classrooms don't hold the key to the future of the British economy - 19th February 2014
 * As Labour and Lib Dem leaders flutter eyelashes, Cameron eyes the lonely hearts club - First thoughts: There are some notable shifts taking place in the Commons dynamic and we could be witnessing the beginning of something meaningful, unless Nigel Farage crashes the party - 17th February
 * If you really want to save the elephants, farm them - The war on ivory, like the war on drugs, intensifies demand. Legalise the trade and breed the animals for their tusks - 14th February
 * How a sensible revision of flood policy was sabotaged - First thoughts: The government is chaotic. It has resorted to a blame game, and allowed - 10th February
 * The Catholic church isn't the only institution to close ranks in a scandal - The police, the NHS, the army – all suffer from a culture of denial. Yet for democracy's sake, they must reform and revive - 7th February
 * Philip Seymour Hoffman and a double standard over drugs - We turn a blind eye to an unworkable law and assume it does not apply to people like us – then take draconian vengeance on others - 3rd February
 * Germany, I'm sorry for this sickening avalanche of WWI worship - The festival of self-congratulation will be the British at their worst, and there are still years to endure. A tragedy for both our nations - 31st January
 * A 50p income tax rate? A lot of hue and cry to raise a small sum of money - First thoughts: Ed Balls would stand more chance of reducing the wealth gap were he to tax the rich on their property - 27th January
 * Brighton's council tax revolution could strike a blow for democracy - Someone must stand up to the bullying of Eric Pickles and the 'localism' act. Can Brighton's Green party lead the way? - 24th January
 * The truth is we are all living on Benefits Street - Everyone is on the take, and whole industries are on white-collar subsidies. Some of us are just smarter at concealing it - 22nd January
 * The Lord Rennard case shows that sorry is still the hardest word in politics - First thoughts: Nick Clegg is at the mercy of an 'open market' for vexatious litigation and an upper chamber desperately in need of reform - 20th January
 * If the MoD can't name the enemy, it shouldn't buy the weapons - Britain hasn't faced a true threat since the cold war, but that hasn't stopped the defence lobby from peddling paranoia - 17th January
 * David Cameron has to do more than offer an EU referendum - Conservative Eurosceptics are impatient to know how he plans to renegotiate Britain's relationship with the EU - 13th January
 * Winter Olympics: one day the worm will turn against these gods of sport - After Vladimir Putin, how many more leaders will risk their nation's security and economy for an IOC mega-event? - 10th January
 * George Osborne talks tough but acts like a Labour chancellor - Despite the claims to austerity, Britain has seen nothing to compare with the cuts imposed on the Greeks or Spaniards - 7th January



Articles: 2013

 * The Conservatives should embrace a yes vote for Scottish independence now - Britain has fought many wars over self-determination, so independence for Scotland should not be treated as a privilege - 31st December
 * With the Volgograd bombs, there is no ignoring Olympic politics or excesses - First thoughts: The more elaborate the staging of international sport events, the more they are liable to attract protest and terrorism - 30th December
 * What Vermeer's guitar player taught me about the joy of art - With Kenwood House restored, The Guitar Player is back where she should be and my obsession is renewed - 27th December
 * Why does a united Northern Ireland still seem a pipe dream? - The inability to agree on flags and parades – fear-mongering emblems of a militarist past – highlights the impossibility of the US negotiator's task - 23rd December
 * Whether or not it's Heathrow, airport expansion is just another glamorous project for the rich - David Cameron's Heathrow U-turn capitulated to the toughest corporate lobby of our times and its claims of what's best for 'UK plc' - 18th December
 * In a globalised world, there is no cure for slavery - First thoughts: Theresa May's modern slavery bill proposes tougher sentences for traffickers, but the line between voluntary migration and servitude is often vague - 16th December
 * Heroic Uruguay deserves a Nobel peace prize for legalising cannabis - The war on the war on drugs is the only war that matters. Uruguay's stance puts the UN and the US to shame - 13th December
 * The Mandela coverage and the banality of goodness - To discuss Mandela alongside Mother Teresa, Gandhi and Jesus is barking mad. I bet he's laughing his head off right now - 11th December
 * The MPs' pay rise is perfectly sensible - First thoughts: Don't let anger at public officials blind one to the need to pay an appropriate salary. Pay less and we'd only get worse MPs - 9th December
 * Wind turbines trash the landscape for the benefit of billionaires - Energy policy is chaotic and incoherent. The myth that wind power is 'free' has driven Britain's politicians mad - 6th December
 * What on earth is David Cameron's China junket for? - First thoughts: Such 'trade missions' are a costly waste of time. Why doesn't he do something useful, such as making it easier for Chinese tourists to visit Britain? - 2nd December
 * Why the assault on cigarette packets? They already look like props in a horror movie - I hate smoking. But I also hate being told by the government how to look after my body. Cameron should leave smokers alone - 29th November
 * Stop lecturing the Scots. They want freedom, not wealth - Westminster's arrogance has played straight into the SNP's hands: next year's Scottish referendum could deliver the shock of the century - 27th November
 * For Iran, peaceful diplomacy has delivered what sabre-rattling could not - First thoughts: Iran's nuclear deal with the west owes far more to the recent growth of democracy than sanctions - 25th November
 * Police crime figures are meaningless. Ban them - Crime statistics could plummet, yet tell us nothing about whether the British are treating each other 'better or worse' - 22nd November
 * The days of believing spy chiefs who say 'Trust us' are over - The world now faces total electronic penetration, with huge power to those who control it. After Edward Snowden, we would be deluded to accept any assurances - 20th November
 * The bloody disaster of Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan is laid bare - First thoughts: Bombs and militia violence make clear the folly of Britain's wars – the removal of law and order from a nation is devastating - 18th November
 * Why should Britain build new towns when it already has great cities? - Awarding prizes for the urbanisation of the countryside makes no sense while existing cities are given Cinderella status - 15th November
 * David Cameron should cut the foreign jaunts and focus on the 2015 election - This is a critical point for the Tory leader. He should be fixing his campaign plans, but instead he's breaking every record for global wanderlust - 13th November
 * Typhoon Haiyan: the pretence that there's always some way out - First thoughts: The craving to help is the most benign human instinct and can't be suppressed. But some things are beyond our control - 11th November
 * Cities are cool, unpredictable and hard to control: Russell Brand should run for mayor - They are our future states, electing dynamic leaders and welcoming new politics – as the win by New York's Bill de Blasio shows - 8th November
 * Ed Miliband's living wage is as naive as his energy price freeze - This Heath-like market intervention would create bureaucratic chaos – the only jobs to benefit would be those in the civil service - 6th November
 * Britain's response to the surveillance scandal should ring every alarm bell - First thoughts: In America even the NSA admits reform is needed, but David Cameron expects Britain to accept GCHQ spying on us - 4th November 2013
 * The Red Cross needs to reclaim its hijacked neutrality - As it turns 150, the ICRC must work to reassert its reputation – undermined by Blair's wars and political adventurism - 1st November
 * Anything makes more sense than the HS2 fiasco - Tories can blame Labour for the line's demise, use the billions on other rail and road links – and reap a publicity bonanza - 30th October
 * Our shambolic energy policy needs more than just competition - First thoughts: The government is right to try and break the big six oligopoly, but a deep audit is required if we are to aid the poor or the planet - 28th October
 * Empire of digital chip meets nemesis: the law of diminishing political returns - The innovations of the past few years, initially so exhilarating, show ever more downsides - 25th October
 * Universities should ditch the talk of investing in the future - Instead of research academics need to focus on giving students what they want for their money: that is, a well-rounded education - 23rd October
 * Welcome back nuclear power, our costly, unpopular light in the dark - First thoughts: The coalition's Hinkley nuclear deal is messy and bad for UK energy users, but it's a decision. And it's cheaper than wind - 21st October
 * The US shutdown crisis has shown us democracy red in tooth and claw - A catastrophe has been avoided, but the conflict over resources was real, and the problem has not gone away - 18th October
 * Help to Buy should be dubbed Help to Vote - George Osborne's crazy scheme is the latest in half a century of political bribery. But Britons never question why home ownership should be subsidised - 9th October
 * Beating terrorism means good local policing, not a National Crime Agency - First thoughts: Rather than the 'British FBI' and the US crashing about Somalia and Libya, it's police work on the ground that gets results - 7th October
 * The Shard can eat its heart out – this is Britain's beauty - The 2013 Stirling architectural prizewinner is a medieval ruin brought back to use. The worm seems to be turning - 4th October
 * After this budget chaos is Uncle Sam ready for assisted suicide? - The federal shutdown looks disastrous, but the constitution's strength allows the US to stare into the abyss – and step back - 2nd October
 * Nigel Farage has made an offer the Tories shouldn't refuse - First thoughts: The Tories are simply too unpopular to turn down a Ukip pact in local elections – it might just keep them in power - 30th September
 * If we fear an Iranian bomb, we should back Hassan Rouhani - There is no advantage for the west in treating Iran's president as a liar or imposing sanctions. He needs our full support - 27th September
 * Trident: this £100bn Armageddon weapon won't make us one jot safer - The consensus among the three main parties on nuclear deterrence merely illustrates the defence lobby's ability to scare politicians stupid - 25th September
 * David Cameron's rush to 'solve the crisis' in Kenya won't help - First thoughts: Cameron has helped send al-Shabaab to the top of the terrorist charts by summoning Cobra - 23rd September
 * Edward Snowden has started a global debate. So why the silence in Britain? - We're subject to huge unwarranted surveillance – but Westminster's useful idiots are more likely to sanction than criticise it - 20th September
 * Vladimir Putin can preen himself over Syria but the pressure on him is intense - The Russian leader has cunningly upstaged Obama. But now he's the dominant player, his own reputation is on the line - 18th September
 * Spare us a 'national debate' on veils - First thoughts: Home office minister Jeremy Browne wants the nation to discuss how Muslim women dress, but it is hardly a menace to society - 16th September 2013
 * Michael Gove should forget maths and turn to marshmallows - The education secretary wants to test children from the age of five. If he had real conviction he'd start far earlier - 13th September
 * HS2 isn't the next Olympics. It's a domestic Afghan war - In high-speed rail as in war, when Cameron and Osborne take refuge in the flag it is a safe bet they know they have lost -11th September
 * Kerry is confusing international law with American pride - First thoughts: The US secretary of state is in London pleading his case for strikes, but such missile attacks are poor law enforcers - 9th September
 * I marvel at Vasily Petrenko's bravery. But generalisations belong to bigotry - Minorities like women conductors have made welcome strides – as a result of merit, not positive discrimination - 4th September
 * The west's threat to attack Syria is an idiotic gesture - First thoughts: A sceptical public recognises the futility of launching a missile strike that will not topple Assad - 2nd September
 * Syria: it takes more courage to say there is nothing outsiders can do - The human misery in Syria is agonising to watch. But intervention-lite is a bad idea for all but the politicians' egos - 30th August
 * Our own politicians and securocrats are the west's real threat - Convinced national security is for ever at risk, western governments mimic the fanaticism they claim to despise - 28th August
 * Ashes 2013: Bumbling officialdom robbed us of a true sporting finale - First thoughts: By tamely calling time on the last Ashes match due to bad light, umpires show why cricket deserves all the ridicule it gets - 26th August
 * So the innocent have nothing to fear? After David Miranda we now know where this leads - The destructive power of state snooping is on display for all to see. The press must not yield to this intimidation - 21st August
 * Is Glenn Greenwald's journalism now viewed as a 'terrorist' occupation? - First thoughts: David Miranda's detention shows that being the partner of the man who interviewed the NSA whistleblower is enough to see you treated like a terrorist - 19th August
 * Gibraltar and the Falklands deny the logic of history - These relics of empire pay hardly any UK tax – but when the neighbours cut up nasty, they demand the British protect them - 14th August
 * Labour: the champion of what, exactly? - Ed Miliband's party has to chart a recovery distinct from the hesitancy of the coalition – not simply offer a pale imitation - 12th August
 * Parking fines rocket because of the centre's addiction to power - Conservatives like Eric Pickles espouse freedom for local councils, but they have done nothing to show they mean it - 1st August
 * How to rid Twitter of misogyny – and make it fit for debate - Women like Caroline Criado-Perez have suffered a torrent of bigotry on social media. But regulation can stop it - 31st July
 * Making travel 'safer' is a dangerous game - First thoughts: The train and coach crashes in Spain and Italy may have been preventable, but we mustn't think we can make travel truly safe - 30th July
 * At last, George Osborne has got in touch with his inner Keynes - With his buy-to-let scheme the chancellor is finally pumping cash to a more productive place than bank vaults - 26th July
 * Enjoy today, young prince. It's all downhill from here - The third in line to the throne cannot expect to enjoy the slightest privacy. The media drones are already overhead - 24th July
 * David Cameron has failed to resist the lunchtime lobbyists' lure - In opposition, he saw the scandal coming. But in office the PM has cosied up to corporate figures like Lynton Crosby - 19th July
 * Another NHS crisis? This is no way to run a public service - Grotesquely overcentralised, and with every arm raised in salute to the minister, Britain's healthcare is stuck in a 1940s time-warp - 17th July
 * TA soldiers aren't alone in brushing with danger in the Brecon Beacons - First thoughts: The death of two TA soldiers raises questions about heat training – but many others are drawn to an escape from health-and-safety drudgery - 15th July
 * Who let this Gulf on Thames scar London's Southbank? Mayor Boris - Boris Johnson pledged to control the vulgarity of bigness. But his city is alone in Europe in its slavery to 'anything goes' money - 12th july
 * Even Le Carré's latest fiction can't do justice to Snowden - Whistleblower and novelist both finger the enemy as their own side. But the full horror of truth always outdoes the imagination - 10th July
 * Abu Qatada's deportation is a victory for the British judicial process - First thoughts: Theresa May should not now attempt to weaken a judicial system that allowed her to secure a political victory by the book - 8th July
 * Mobs make fickle friends. Egypt is not Les Misérables - Western leaders had absurd expectations of the Arab spring. Now they are frantic to depict events in Cairo as not a coup - 5th July
 * To rein in top pay, keep MPs poor and furious - As long as politicians harbour a pay grievance against public sector colleagues, they are more likely to guard the public purse - 3rd July 2013
 * What is David Cameron doing in Kazakhstan? - Of course Britain must do business with Kazakhstan, but it doesn't have to give the regime its political blessing - 1st July
 * Politicians who demand inquiries should be taken out and shot - From Stephen Lawrence to Bloody Sunday, an inquiry serves as the establishment's get out of jail free card - 25th June
 * Who'd try to smear Stephen Lawrence's family? A Met that's out of control - All police forces have two cultures. One is of genuine service. The other is a murkier world of secret operations and militias - 24th June
 * Brazil is saying what we could not: we don't want these costly extravaganzas - From the World Cup to the G8, many countries are paying an extortionate price for hosting these pointless displays - 20th June
 * Britain's response to the NSA story? Back off and shut up - Snowden's revelations are causing outrage in the US. In the UK, Hague deploys a police-state defence and the media is silenced - 19th June
 * From Trafalgar to Taksim, the politics of the square puts the wind up power - Forget Field Marshal Twitter. What scares rulers like Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdoğan are the street's wild squadrons - 12th June
 * NSA surveillance revelations: Osama bin Laden would love this - The US has shown itself so paranoid in the face of possible 'al-Qaida-linked terror' that it has played right into jihadist hands - 8th June
 * The U-turn on wind turbines won't stop their march over every hill and valley - Once planning was the defender of the countryside. But with Cameron's lot in power, money talks and beauty is silent - 7th June
 * Ed Balls is as mesmerised by the bankers as George Osborne - Austerity has lost its credibility everywhere but London and Berlin. The shadow chancellor missed a golden opportunity - 5th June
 * The next coronation should be a civil partnership ceremony - This medieval ritual, moving though it is, is so overwhelmingly religious it risks diminishing the monarchy. Reform it now - 31st May
 * Syria and the Middle East: our greatest miscalculation since the rise of fascism - By helping to destroy secular politics in the Middle East, the west has unleashed the Shia/Sunni conflict now tearing it apart - 29th May
 * Woolwich attack: This echo chamber of mass hysteria only aids terrorists - Perpetrators of violent acts of terror thrive on publicity – so politicians and the media need to stop giving it to them - 23rd May
 * First, David Cameron should bring his own tax havens to book - Pressing the G8 to get tough on avoidance is hypocrisy while British dependencies like the Caymans are still in business - 22nd May
 * Now we know HS2's a fiasco. But can George Osborne admit it? - The social security budget is being butchered – yet there is no lobby at the Treasury to curb this wild extravagance in spending - 17th May
 * The digital revolution? It's all a gift to the power of the state - From the Pentagon to Whitehall, caving in to fear of terror has given data intrusion and press restriction the best tunes - 15th May
 * Alex Ferguson's hairdryer treatment won't cut it in politics - The Manchester United boss has been wildly lauded for his success on the pitch. Those who govern us don't have it so easy - 10th May
 * If David Cameron had any sense, he would call a referendum on Europe now - With Ukip and now Nigel Lawson roaming free, he'll only regain the initiative on Europe if he calls Nick Clegg's bluff - 8th May
 * From Greenland to Mount Everest, this is the season of reckless jaunts - The quest for risk is part of human nature. It can't be suppressed by bureaucracy or it will resurface elsewhere - 3rd May
 * What Queen Elizabeth can learn from Queen Beatrix - Britain's monarch enjoys huge popular support – but therein lies the royals' vulnerability. They should look to the Netherlands - 1st May
 * The European dream is in dire need of a reality check - The EU has lost the support of two thirds of its citizens, yet its leaders won't wake up. It's time for a sceptics' vision of Europe - 26th April
 * If Abenomics works, Britain's leaders will look like monkeys - George Osborne should abandon the tribal morality of austerity and, like Japan, print money not for banks but for people - 24th April
 * Must we silence nightingales in order to build houses? - This exquisitely precious bird – nature's composer, conductor and performer in one – is at risk from modern British planning - 19th April
 * After the bomb, mass hysteria is the Boston terrorist's greatest weapon - A Chinese proverb bids us ask what the enemy most wants us to do. Boston's bomber craves publicity, reaction and retaliation - 17th April
 * The test tube pioneers who gave the world 5 million bundles of joy - Bob Edwards and Patrick Steptoe, who brought happiness to so many, had at first to endure howls of protest - 12th April
 * Margaret Thatcher: pro-European 'wet' transformed by a triumphant war - The hypercautious leader who showered money on the unions was about to get the boot: the Falklands changed all that - 9th April
 * Where's the real threat here – Kim Jong-un or Trident? - What we should be scared of is not the North Korean's belicosity but how it's being used to subvert domestic politics in the west - 4th April
 * Unlike most government reforms, the impact of the planning changes is forever - The planning changes are causing pandemonium – damaging democracy and scarring the countryside with thousands of new homes - 28th March
 * Press regulation: a victory for the rich, the celebrated and the powerful - This new press regulator is all about revenge, not justice. It's hard to imagine a more chilling deterrent to serious investigation - 21st March
 * The election of a new pope is God's Olympics: global publicity, weeping crowds – and no meaning - The papal election matters only to those made miserable by the church's reactionary leadership - 15th March
 * Huhne and Pryce fell hard because we wanted them to - The jailing of Chris Huhne and Vicky Pryce reflects our inability to punish political figures for their public failings - 12th March
 * More spending? We may as well build a bridge to the moon - David Cameron and Vince Cable are both wrong. Infrastructure isn't the answer and nor is QE – money in pockets is - 8th March
 * Ignore their howls of protest. If bankers leave the country, it would be no loss - They took home unheard of sums. Only in Britain do ministers dance to their tune. But public fury cannot be defied for ever - 6th March
 * History teaching? Karl Marx would agree with Michael Gove – and so do I - We would not study plays from the end backwards, so why mess with the story of our nation? - 1st March
 * Beppe Grillo's antics may yet shake the whole European system - From Italy to Eastleigh, the economics of self-flagellation have set off a wave of wildcat populism, with unpredictable results - 27th February
 * Juries? It's time they went the way of the ducking stool - The soap opera that is the Vicky Pryce trial shows the archaic rituals of our courts to be little more than legal parlour games - 22nd February
 * Forget fairness. This mansion tax is ideological cowardice - A fair extension of the council tax would be easy, lucrative, progressive – and anathema to people like Balls and Cable - 20th February
 * The detail of Ed Miliband's mansion tax is daft - Tycoons inflating London property prices should pay more tax, but the money should go to local councils – not the Treasury - 15th February
 * Freedom doesn't simply mean letting it all hang out - We don't want a society in which Page 3, or Beckham's bulge, are banned. But self-restraint is a mark of civilisation - 15th February
 * Whether it's North Korea or Iran, sanctions won't work - UN security council threats against Pyongyang and Tehran act like an elixir to the regimes, while their people continue to suffer - 13th February
 * Tory metrosexuals won the gay marriage vote – but at what cost? - I agree that gay marriage is right. But the true test of tolerance lies in its treatment of intolerance – and we failed that test - 6th February
 * We can count hard cash, but what is the value of beauty? - In planning, defenders of nature are 'nimbies', opponents 'vandals'. To end the shouting match we need a new language - 1st February
 * UK intervention in Mali treads a familiar – and doomed – path - Does Mali pose an 'existential threat' to the UK? Hardly. Intervention will bring only more trouble - 30th January
 * Cameron's speech told Europe's emperors to get dressed - The EU's elder statesmen tried to run before they could walk. We may not like it, but Cameron's call was brave and timely - 25th January
 * Wars like Afghanistan should never be a theatre for celebrity - Prince Harry may shine as a soldier, but he's just a pawn in a political game – adding celebrity dust to a senseless conflict - 23rd January
 * Should 'true story' films such as Zero Dark Thirty and Argo be rated L for lie? - Inaccuracy in journalism is taken seriously, but film-makers happily play fast and loose with the facts - 18th January
 * Europe: no more talk of in-or-out. Let's think opt-outs - The EU treaties are not fit for purpose, but leaving makes no sense. Negotiation is possible without risking free trade - 16th January
 * Drones are fool's gold: they prolong wars we can't win -New appointments in the White House hail an era of hands-free warfare. Yet these weapons induce not defeat, but retaliation - 11th January
 * Don't mock Nick Clegg – he may stay in power for a generation - Since 2010 the deputy PM has been dismissed as politically crippled. Yet his cunning could leave him kingmaker again - 9th January
 * Europe is already gnawing at David Cameron's vitals - Every sensible person accepts that Britain needs a new deal with the other states. It's all in the detail - 2nd January



Articles: 2012

 * The Olympics were a celebration worthy of Nero – and as extravagant - London 2012 was an orgasmic moment of public pleasure. But its legacy is more hangover than feelgood factor - 28th December
 * An atheist's prayer for the churches that keep our soul - After a year of bad news, spare a thought at Christmas for one of the threads that binds communities together - 21st December
 * North Korea's boys' toys are not a threat – but our reaction to them is - Big missiles and nuclear weapons do not topple states, conventional arms do. Their menace is political, not military - 14th December
 * If only saying nothing were an option for William Hague of the FO - As Northern Ireland goes up in flames, our foreign minister still lectures other states on nation-building. How dare he? - 7th December
 * Pity this royal baby, its future a public obstacle course - The idea of a 'royal family' has been a big mistake. Its members are forced to live under the glare of a terrible spotlight - 5th December
 * Cameron is right about Leveson. This is a Rubicon we must not cross - Ask the victims of press intrusion, and of course they will call for the gag and the gallows – but that doesn't make it right - 1st December
 * This bid to force all schools into line will end in failure - The craving for uniformity in public services has become a frenzy, but Michael Gove cannot run every classroom - 28th November
 * Give prisoners the vote. But not because Europe says so - It's wrong that laws can be imposed by the court of human rights. But Britain signed up to this club and its rules voluntarily - 23rd November
 * David Cameron's Hitler talk misses the real enemy in our midst - The prime minister summoned the wartime spirit in his battle to revive Britain, but he has picked the wrong target - 21st November
 * Leaders should be sacked for incompetence, not cheating - US generals Petraeus and Allen had to bow to what feels close to mob rule. Is this how we do accountability now? - 16th November
 * Bureacracy has become the BBC's dieback disease - So unwieldy is its vast, multilayered hierarchy that the corporation has lost all capacity to allocate blame for its mistakes - 14th November
 * The tribal grunts of left and right will not rescue us - From the gulf between rich and poor, to welfare reform, old arguments are failing to find answers for a world in flux - 9th November
 * If politics must be brought into policing, let it be local - Police commissioners may not capture the public imagination, but we reject any measure of democracy at our peril - 7th November
 * Let us all see the Foreign Office anaconda - There are too many paintings, sculptures and museum objects hidden from view. Time for the 'anaconda project' - 2nd November
 * In the wind turbine debate, who dares utter the B-word? - Unless we find the words to discuss the beauty of our landscape, it will be desecrated by lines of great waving semaphores - 2nd November
 * David Cameron's pro-EU charade cannot go on much longer - The PM talks tough on the European Union but claims to support it. His position is hopeless. A new deal is needed - 31st October
 * Wave a banknote at a pundit and he'll predict anything - Of course it is outrageous to jail scientists for honest errors, but it is legitimate to hold them to some account - 26th October
 * The Jimmy Savile witch-hunt sets us on a path to paranoia - In our rush to apportion blame for the actions of an individual, we risk becoming blind to the real issues of the day - 24th October
 * Rather than prices, David Cameron should fix the energy mess - If a Tory prime minister can 'pass a law' on utility bills, then he can make a decision on where our power should come from - 19th October
 * It's drugs politics, not drugs policy, that needs an inquiry - The sanity of politicians in opposition turns into the darkest taboo in power. This is the greatest failure of modern statecraft - 17th October
 * Gove's centralism is not so much socialist as Soviet - Instead of modernising, British schools stick with the same culture that saw a Nobel winner humiliated in class - 12th October
 * We need an iconoclast to lead the Bank of England - Central bankers are acting like allied commanders at the Battle of the Somme. Adair Turner would be a breath of fresh air - 10th October
 * Cromarty may have gone, but now we have Spanglish - Dialect can't be saved any more than the families that use it can be frozen in time. Instead, enjoy the creation of new voices
 * British soldiers are dying in Afghanistan to win the war of Whitehall - Only one battle matters to the Ministry of Defence – the battle for resources. In this the Taliban is not an enemy, but an ally - 3rd October
 * Don't vilify Nick Clegg, a man doomed by circumstance - I'm as baffled as ever as to what the Lib Dems are about. But Clegg, their leader, has performed as well as could be expected - 28th September
 * Council tax: the easy way to make mansion-dwellers pay - Adding further bands to this locally raised tax would be fair and effective. But our politicians lack the guts - 26th September
 * History as fantasy is no substitute for rigorous truth - Whether it's Richard III's corpse, Jesus's wife or King Arthur's castle, to be seduced by myth is to flirt with fanaticism - 21st September
 * It's judicial machismo that jails women like Sarah Catt - The harm done to society by needlessly sending women to prison far outweighs their crime: in this, Britain is medieval - 19th September
 * Hillsborough shows it's time for elected police commissioners - If the public head of Sheffield police had been accountable to voters we may have avoided the 23 years of cover-ups - 14th September
 * Hijacking Olympic glory for political gain is dangerous - I love sport, but the media's pop psychology and UK politicians' bellowing patriotism has cheapened the athletes' achievement - 12th September
 * Planning policy: Don't blame the countryside for our lack of housing - Britain is desperately inefficient in its land use, and there are still no measures to bring empty property back on the market - 7th September
 * What a reshuffle. It's the return of Brown and Blair - David Cameron can wail, but he is the real ditherer – ever more Tony Blair to George Osborne's Gordon Brown - 5th September
 * Yeo's runway taunt is big-willy politics, and that is the most dangerous politics of all - The third runway appeals to paranoid machismo not reason. A recession is no excuse for pushing through dumb projects - 29th August
 * The west's hypocrisy over Pussy Riot is breathtaking - Our courts now jail at the drop of a headline – for stealing water or abuse sent on Twitter. So who are we to condemn Russia? - 22nd August
 * The busted British economy needs more than just Olympic spirit - If the Games taught us anything it is that daring to be different can work. Let's take the same approach to stimulus - 15th August
 * Nick Clegg's in the last ditch. Now is the time for him to come out fighting - Defeat over Lords reform gives the the Lib Dems a chance to impact on coalition policy where it most matters: the economy - 8th August
 * Rio 2016 needs to know that, like Santa Claus, Olympic profit doesn't exist - London 2012 is fun, and competently delivered so far. But to pretend we will recover the cost is a lie we shouldn't perpetuate - 3rd August
 * Bravo to the Chinese badminton players – they're just trying to win medals - Criticising a nation's athletes for wanting to win as many medals as possible is to forget what the Olympics is really about - 1st August
 * Eurozone crisis: the bankers are happy to play Nero as Europe burns - To prop up the euro – whose survival is vital only for the banks' balance sheets – a generation is thrown into poverty - 1st August
 * Tony Blair may itch to return, but he faces a cruel reality check - Forget the comeback. Only an act of grovelling atonement would salvage the ex-prime minister's reputation - 27th July
 * London 2012 Olympics: what price fleeting joy? For Britons, it's £9bn - The Olympic effect on 'wellbeing' will be hard to calculate. Its damage to the public finances, I fear, rather less so - 25th July
 * This language of war won't help Syria escape its agony - In reacting to foreign conflicts, the west has to find a way of engaging that has meaning but stops short of bloodshed - 20th July
 * The craving for massive live events is ruining our cities - In the digital age, there's big money to be made in large gatherings. But the Olympics will show the flaws of circus economics - 18th July
 * Mervyn King has turned our leaders into zombie puppets - Demand has not risen. Neither has production. Yet we have been duped into thinking that QE will kickstart the economy - 13th July
 * For the digital revolution, this is the Robespierre moment - Total disclosure means the onset of a new terror, a retreat to a kind of sofa government beyond freedom of information - 11th July
 * The Shard has slashed the face of London for ever - Timbuktu's shrines can be rebuilt but this tower, and the glass forest that's set to follow, will ruin the skyline of the capital - 4th July
 * Banking keeps getting away with it, just as the unions did - Heads will probably roll for the Libor scandal, but this crisis won't end until the profession's link with politicians is severed - 29th June
 * Despite the Queen's handshake with Martin McGuinness there is little reconciliation - It is good that the Queen's visit has crossed a divide. But power sharing in Northern Ireland remains inherently unstable - 27th June
 * Aerial views of a very different Britain - These black and white photos of the UK from the 1920s on are recognisable but show how much the country has changed - 26th June
 * These tax scams are all legal – that's morally repugnant - Cameron and Osborne thunder about the likes of Jimmy Carr, but seem terrified of upsetting the rich or closing tax havens - 22nd June
 * The eurozone's people are like prisoners in Colditz - Incarcerated in a citadel of currency union with the flexibility of granite, their governments give them no chance to escape - 20th June
 * The 'Isles of Wonder' Olympic opening ceremony: I smell a rat - Is Danny Boyle's vision of England's green and pleasant land all that it seems? - 15th June
 * The marriage of church and state is anything but gay - Anglicans emerge from this row looking absurdly pedantic. It's time to disestablish the Church of England - 13th June
 * The euro gets off scot-free in this debacle – just like the black rat - The eurozone suffers from the same folly that, in the 14th century, saw the Black Death blamed on everything bar its cause - 8th June
 * A royal jubilee of bread and circuses, maybe, but the country needed it - The wet, over-policed pageant couldn't eclipse the triumphal concert. This jubilee provided us with a collective buzz - 6th June
 * From secret justice to VAT, coalition U-turns are in the right direction - Whether it's the Cornish pasty or the Caravan Club, the politics of the climbdown show the strength of coalition government - 30th May
 * Cameron should know that money in pockets, not austerity, brings growth - David Cameron's idea for lifting Britain harks back to 1930s Bank of England dogma. What we need is a cash injection - 25th May
 * British energy policy is a dark underworld of fanatics - The government's decision to direct resources to nuclear and wind is typical of an institution befuddled and beset by lobbyists - 23rd May
 * So, you think reason guides your politics? Think again - I thought I could see tribal bigotry at 100 paces and fell it with a Socratic blow, but I was deluding myself – and so are you - 18th May
 * For Greece – and Europe – the true calamity is to delay exiting the euro -Europe's rulers must finally bow to market reality. Only the Grexit can end this nightmare - 16th May
 * A British FBI has got no chance against London's very own KGB - Theresa May's desire to nationalise crimebusting will always founder on a far more powerful force: the Metropolitan police - 11th May
 * George Osborne's growth policy is turning British cities into Detroit UK - Britain's economy needs smart growth, not dumb policies that have delivered a double-dip recession - 9th May
 * 2012 Olympics: Kabul. Baghdad. London. Three to avoid this summer - The missile batteries, fighter jets and VIP lanes are what happens when a world agency blackmails a city aching for prestige - 4th May
 * David Cameron has only just learned what government is about - The Jeremy Hunt crisis has again taken Cameron by surprise. He doesn't lack belief, just a brain that can join political dots - 2nd May
 * Is this the death of conversation? - As our meeting places fall silent, save for tapping on screens, it seems we have mistaken ubiquitous connection for the real thing - 27th April
 * Europe's terrible blunder can be rectified. Remember 1931 - The euro was a blood sacrifice to the Eurocrats' fanaticism. But Europe's democracy may save us from Europe's single currency - 25th April
 * Elected mayors will destroy our shadowy civic mafias - Mayors can be the local champions needed to revive cities held back by party complacency and Whitehall's dead hand - 18th April
 * The war on terror is corrupting all it touches - Every student agitator is a terrorist, every internet hacker, cafeteria dissident, freedom fighter and insurgent leader - 13th April
 * Ignore the pasties and the petrol stories: it was a good fortnight for the government - The volume of noise from a cynical news storm drowns out any sentient analysis of the budget and its aftermath - 4th April
 * We’ve won the battle but not the war - The greatest attack on planning controls in 50 years has been averted – for the time being - 31st March
 * Tories' long and winding road to sensible planning - At last the government has reined in the cowboy lobbyists and allowed urban renewal to trump rural development - 28th March
 * 'Cash-for-policy' boast is a deep offence against democracy - Cameron and Osborne must have been aware of what was going on – even if they were not privy to Cruddas's earthy style - 26th March
 * Margaret Thatcher's biggest debt was to Argentina's navy - If not for Alfredo Astiz, 30 years ago Britain would have lost the Falkland Islands and Thatcher her political career - 23rd March
 * Budget 2012: This may be the last great moment for the Tory-Lib Dem accord - Nick Clegg knows he has to break loose from David Cameron soon. The coalition's radicalism must be crammed into this budget - 21st March
 * Universities need the guts to break this Faustian pact with research - As long as university academics claim privileged public sector status, the agony of their bondage to the state will continue - 16th March
 * Sorry Cameron, but Air Force One is no place for a British prime minister - While David Cameron enjoys some portentous posing in Obama's jet, the mice are gnawing at the fabric of his government - 14th March
 * In Afghanistan it's lies that are really killing our soldiers - The phoney oratory of British national security so beloved of Cameron and his generals has lost all contact with reality - 9th March
 * Drop the 50p tax rate and target property – the gutsy Welsh way to go - Our cockeyed council tax epitomises the political cowardice of successive governments. Will George Osborne be braver? - 7th March
 * We are fighting Islamism from ignorance, as we did the cold war - The west wasted trillions in needless conflict with the USSR. Now we are being brainwashed into confrontation with Iran - 2nd March
 * Leveson's phone-hacking show trial has a cruel virtue - My Leveson scepticism is fading. Public humiliation of Murdoch and co is where its value lies, not judgments on media reform - 29th February
 * Adele and her ilk have mangled the ancient art of rhetoric - Awards ceremonies highlight the amateurism of modern public speeches – most are an exercise in tedium and torture - 24th February
 * An attack on Iran would be an act of criminal stupidity - US and Israeli leaders are talking themselves into a disastrous conflict that will make Iranian nuclear weapons a certainty - 22nd February
 * Theresa May plays a familiar part in the farce of border control - Whitehall reorganisation is ministers' favourite blood sport. But frontline staff must be allowed to make their own decisions - 22nd February
 * We can love only a beloved. For all the others, try courtesy - Her hymn to love was beautiful, but Jeannette Winterson's mistake is to generalise this most specific of emotions - 17th February
 * Austerity fails, yet we're too shy to think outside the box - Like Dickens's Mr Dorrit, we are hamstrung by our debt, denied the means to earn our recovery. An alternative is needed - 15th February
 * In most countries the Harry Redknapp case wouldn't have reached a jury - Simon Jenkins: Redknapp's was the latest in a series of show trials – even if he had been guilty it could have been settled with a handshake - 10th February
 * Deport Abu Qatada: or if not, give him the law's full protection - Qatada champions al-Qaida and delights in terrorist outrages. But Britain is robust enough to tolerate madcap clerics - 8th February
 * Still Britain rattles sabres. Nothing has been learned from Afghanistan - As we 'withdraw' from Afghanistan across the Taliban's golden bridge, we could be heading for catastrophe over Iran - 3rd February
 * Ban bonuses, and Fred Goodwin could have kept his knighthood - Even bankers want the bonus culture outlawed. It's a conspiracy to extract money from firms that properly belongs to others - 1st February
 * The UK economy needs a shower of money in the high street - Printing money might not be dignified, but it does work – just keep the banks and the credit rating agencies out of it - 27th January
 * David Cameron needs to understand the state before he can cut the deficit - Cameron is right: Britain's deficit must be tackled. But his failure to fully comprehend the public sector could prove costly
 * Don't dismiss nimbyism – it's the default mode of politics - Politicians are quick to sneer at complaints about HS2, but the tale of Boris's airport shows how hypocritical they are - 20th January
 * Ed Miliband, welcome to the coalition – but don't stay too long - The Labour leader's sanity on cuts is what the economy needs. But long term, a healthy democracy needs real opposition - 18th January
 * 'Devo max' would make Scotland fiscally responsible – why does Cameron oppose it? - Only a tribalistic craving for central control explains the prime minister's urge to defend the UK against Scottish independence - 13th January
 * High-speed rail: the greatest waste of public money after aircraft carriers - HS2 will cost taxpayers £1bn a year in interest alone, all so a few rich business people can get to Birmingham earlier - 11th January
 * Assisted dying: we can't visit indignity on the terminally ill - The coalition should not declare assisted dying a matter of 'individual conscience' while leaving it subject to criminal law - 6th January
 * Why is Britain ramping up sanctions against Iran? - Sabre-rattling at Washington's behest is an idiocy, and likely to do little other than escalate the steps to open conflict - 4th January



Articles: 2011

 * Britain's imperial echoes have led it to a ruinous decade of wars - The UK has been belligerent to the Muslim world – while not being threatened by any state - 28th December
 * At this time of year, let's thank God for churches - Believer or not, Christmas is a reminder of what these places of worship do so well – maintaining and expressing community - 23rd December
 * The government is s Insert non-formatted text here o draconian, yet so casual towards dodgy private cash - At times like this we need an equality of misery. Yet public spending is slashed while Revenue & Customs caves in to the wealthy - 21st December
 * The cause of this recession? Economic pundits ignoring history's voice - As long as factional interests like bankers or economists override common sense, there will be another crash - 16th December
 * Europe's hopeless last stand in defence of the single currency - Bashing Britain may make Eurocrats feel good, but Cameron was right to stand aloof from a treaty that will surely fail - 14th December
 * The law on murder is most foul. Kenneth Clarke should reform it - The public and the legal profession want change. It would be a tragedy if the justice minister is thwarted by his peers - 7th December
 * Welcome to the post-digital world, an exhilarating return to civility – via Facebook and Lady Gaga - The web is not a destination in itself but a route map to somewhere real – we're coming together again - 2nd December
 * Osborne's misplaced trust in banks is a risk that has failed - A wise chancellor would have pleaded with people to go out and spend. Lending-led recovery does not happen - 30th November
 * We can't be sure that democracy will survive this mess - Europe may well muddle through with technocrats and tighter straitjackets, but the rule of the people must be guarded - 24th November
 * Wild flowers are nature's anarchists. Yet today even weeds must conform - Plants have evolved their own class system. Those of the countryside are treasured, and those 'in the wrong place' villified - 18th November
 * Coalition hypocrisy lies behind this war on motorists - Capped and cut back, local councils can't raise money by any other means, so it's no surprise they pick on car drivers - 15th November
 * A new Europe must be built on the ruins of the old - Only a redrafted constitution will revive the EU: there could be no worse end to this saga than imposition of German 'discipline' - 11th November
 * The ethical fluff of St Paul's and Rowan Williams is a liberal cop-out - Pythonesque preaching from Church of England top brass is of no practical help in this economic mess - 9th November
 * America's itch to brawl has a new target – but bombs can't conquer Iran - A post-imperial virus has infected foreign policy. We've been here before, we know the human cost, and now we must stop - 4th November
 * For Cameron big bridges are sexier than real jobs - Conservative economic policy is still spellbound by supply-side glamour, so the market has no part to play in creating growth - 2nd November
 * In trying to save the euro, Germany is making demands that cannot be met - The EU, which was mildly corrupt, is now reckless and rigid too. Whatever the question, monetary union is not the answer - 28th October
 * Occupy Wall Street? These protests are not Tahrir Square but scenery - Power has slipped from democratic institutions and is ever further from the people. Insurrection, though, requires menace - 21st October
 * Europe's defunct idealism is like Munich all over again - The blindness that afflicts Europe's leaders on the euro and austerity is straight from the 1930s - 19th October
 * Why fiddle with our clocks? This ritual persecution of the sleepless must end - The return from summer time to gloomy GMT owes nothing to nature and all to the Scots. Let us down south enjoy a little light - 14th October
 * Only England fails to foresee the demise of its first empire - Scotland's 'devo max' is no rerun of Bannockburn: but Cameron responds like London's ignorant governing elite always has - 12th October
 * Vanity, machismo and greed have blinded us to the folly of Afghanistan - The decade-long retribution exacted on this nation has cost the west dearly – and our old foes laugh at our expense - 7th October
 * Stop the gimmicks, Cameron – start learning from Thatcher - David Cameron is looking flaky. He should realise that Margaret Thatcher based her ascendancy on a ruthless attention to detail - 5th October
 * Without a growth plan, the EU faces financial Waterloo - The latest eurozone rescue scheme may save Greece for now, but it fails on a basic rule of classical economics - 28th September
 * Britain's Nazi obsession betrays our insecurity – it's time we moved on - Only frightened people seek sustenance from ancient rivalries and past victories we should have consigned to history - 23rd September
 * By giving Britain stability, Nick Clegg has pulled off a remarkable coup - The Lib Dem leader has played a blinder to keep the coalition together in turbulent times. Shame he's brought no new ideas to the table - 21st September
 * Their backyards are safe – what about yours? - Ignore these self-serving tycoons. It’s not the planning system that is stifling development - 20th September
 * Europe is turning back to national identity - The European debt crisis is a reformation moment – the EU has overreached its power and now faces a crisis of legitimacy - 16th September
 * Call this planning reform? It's a recipe for civil war - Eric Pickles's document speaks of ministers lost to lobbyists. Neighbourhood forums won't stop England becoming uglier - 14th September
 * Let's find progressive ways to tax the winners in our trickle-up economy - Blaming Britain's lack of growth on the taxation of high earners is nonsense – and totally out of step with the rest of the world - 9th September
 * Economic growth follows demand, so give people cash to spend - The chancellor's gamble hasn't paid off. An urgent shift in priorities is now needed if Britain isn't to slip back into recession - 7th September
 * English history: why we need to understand 1066 and all that - History is more than just isolated moments. Only with a knowledge of the complete evolution of English politics can we address the problems facing today's society - 2nd September
 * Britain fails to protect its heritage we'll have nothing left but ghosts'' - The Welsh mining settlement of Dylife once thrived but now it lies forgotten, like so much of our industrial past - 2nd September
 * maths of coalition has opened the door to lobbyists'' - Policymakers have rarely been so vulnerable to the blandishments of vested interests like the anti-abortion lobby - 31st August
 * is not an advertisement for intervention'' - Several claims have been made about Nato's involvement in Libya that have little basis in reality - 26th August
 * end of Gaddafi is welcome. But it does not justify the means'' - We may all applaud Gaddafi's downfall, but it remains the case that Britain's intervention in Libya was wrong - 24th August
 * riots: In this crisis, our cities need local leaders with real power'' - The vacuum of authority below our centralised state leaves the police with the impossible task of keeping order alone - 10th August
 * Britain bombs Tripoli. Bar death, what do we achieve?'' - Britain should never have got involved in Libya. But Whitehall constraint has been eroded, and none in power admit their folly - 3rd August
 * localism bill will sacrifice our countryside to market forces'' - The government's 'sustainable' new planning policy invites corruption and will sink us in urban sprawl - 28th July
 * last thing Norway needs is illiberal Britain's patronising'' - Hysterical British reaction poses a greater threat to democracy than Anders Breivik's meaningless and random acts of violence - 27th July
 * union, always unworkable, has set in train a European disaster'' - The eurozone is heading towards doomed fiscal union. But sceptics shouldn't celebrate, as the chaos will reach Britain too - 22nd July
 * Murdoch story is not a Berlin Wall moment – just daft hysteria'' - Phone hacking was a serious error. But the media industry would be poorer without Murdoch's innovative presence - 20th July
 * will forget the phone hacking and cringe again'' - A newspaper faced up to Murdoch, not parliament. Instead of regulation, leaders need the courage to call the media's bluff - 13th July
 * of the World was not such a steal for Murdoch'' - It may have made him piles of money, but the News of the World has proved more trouble to Rupert Murdoch than it was worth - 8th July
 * George Gilbert Scott, the unsung hero of British architecture'' - The restoration of the St Pancras hotel should remind us of Scott, who towered over his profession yet has no biography - 8th July
 * News of the World editors lost self-control – and all respect for the law'' - For papers, phone hacking is a moment of truth: commercial pressures have warped ethics – and the public will want action - 6th July
 * this era of capitulation, the log-rollers are rampant'' - The higher civil service, once the government's purring Rolls-Royce, has been taken for a joy-ride by the great professions - 29th June
 * mugging Clarke was about fear of the tabloids, not consultation'' - The justice secretary's message on penal reform was too radical and the PM lost his nerve. So we will keep wasting money - 24th June
 * I were a Greek, I would be out on the streets too'' - Why should Greeks accept austerity when they know foreign taxpayers will finance their extravagance? - 21st June
 * worst fears came true. We invent enemies to buy the bombs'' - Britain faces no serious threat, yet keeps waging war. While big defence exists, glory-hungry politicians will use it - 17th June
 * can't resist the call to arms. But who'll get hurt?'' - If public sector workers do deploy the primeval strike weapon, working parents and patients will suffer, not a Tory government - 15th June
 * Grayling has caricatured British universities. No wonder they're fuming'' - The New College of Humanities founder has exposed higher education as a luxury consumable for the middle classes - 10th June
 * reform? Just another dish for this obese dinosaur'' - Andrew Lansley's bid to introduce local choice and competition in the NHS will, like previous ones, achieve the opposite - 8th June
 * village politics, as elsewhere, what matters is not agreement but conflict'' - The debate is raw, people participate and outcomes matter. Even if localism fans a fierce rural social protectionism, I like it - 3rd June
 * is no 'world governing body', just a squalid cartel'' - Sepp Blatter may run an upmarket Sopranos, but he won't be held to account by our craven authorities any time soon - 1st June
 * for nimbyism. What else will keep us from turbines and pylons?'' - Too much faith – and subsidy – is ploughed into wind power when there are alternatives to butchering Britain - 27th May
 * and Cameron must break this addiction to war'' - Both Britain and America are fuelling Muslim anger by failing to rein in an aggressive military interventionist strategy - 25th May
 * by media ordeal has become our politicians' rite of passage'' - Forget reasoned debate. Ken Clarke follows Huhne, Laws and Cable as the latest star of the hot coals roadshow - 20th May
 * Libya, Britain has slid into every interventionist fallacy'' - As the RAF roams Tripoli seeking Gaddafi homes to attack, the pretence of protecting civilians is exposed each night - 18th May
 * Cameron's smooth image is not all caricature - he has a right to be cocky'' - Over the past year Cameron has emerged as a leader of real ability with a talent for luck. Libya aside, it can't get much better - 13th May
 * is time for England's first empire to get independence'' - In a fit of Anglo-Saxon machismo, Cameron has vowed to fight Scottish self-rule 'with every fibre I have'. But why? - 11th May
 * bin Laden is dead – but not al-Qaida or its cause'' - Ten years of 'war on terror' have devastated Afghanistan. All its people want is peace. Will they get it at last? - 3rd May
 * royal wedding cannot bear the weight of meaning that's being heaped on it'' - Dress, hair, coach and cake will tell us nothing about monarchy, class or modern Britain. Just relax and enjoy the fun - 29th April
 * no such thing as 'big society' – just many small ones, under steeples'' - Churches are the obvious place for revived localism yet their potential remains locked behind regulatory clutter and spiralling costs - 22nd April
 * humanitarians come to Libya with missiles, and an agenda'' - Rather than protecting Libyans Nato is prolonging the agony of civil war. David Cameron should think on Suez and retreat - 20th April
 * cult of the ruin renders England's landscape soulless. Better to rebuild'' - New tomes and TV shows exult in our wrecked castles and abbeys. Why do we not bring them back to useful life? - 15th April
 * advice for the happiness lobby? Start with drugs'' - It's a quest that has taxed the likes of Billy Graham and the Dalai Lama. The answer's in local politics and narcotics legislation - 13th April
 * Clegg, you chose to be coalition arm-candy, so accept being a punchbag'' - Instead of bewailing his lot, Nick Clegg should sniff the daffodils and be grateful he missed the golden era of political venom - 8th April
 * immobility is built into the way Britain lives and learns'' - No industry, no jobs, no incentive – the idea that Nick Clegg's internships will change the towns I visited last week is laughable - 6th April
 * merely bolstering the weaker side, we are prolonging Libya's civil war'' - The interventionists lack the courage of their convictions. If they really want Gaddafi gone, they should just get on with it - 1st April
 * universities must now declare their independence'' - The student fees policy is absurd. Higher education should kick its addiction to state cash and call the coalition's bluff - 30th March
 * has long been a poor venue for protest – Saturday won't change this'' - This outdated ritual of banners, pushchairs, linked hands and incantations won't turn Trafalgar into Tahrir - 25th March
 * 2011: Guardian columnists' verdict'' - 24th March
 * Cameron is finding it's just as hard to carry the home front'' - It took just 24 hours for the media to start talking splits and exits over Libya. Cameron's gamble looks bigger by the day - 23rd March
 * alternative vote is fine in theory. But politics is a practical business'' - Until Stephen Fry and co deliver a voting system along US or French lines, I'll stick with the devil I know: first past the post - 18th March
 * Hutton's naive pay review won't stop the bosses' bonus racket'' - Will Hutton's new strategy for top public-sector pay is flawed. Bonuses are not about performance and incentive – just greed - 16th March
 * who've flunked pensions reform for 40 years can hardly complain now'' - Pensions review: Lord Hutton merely reflects the widespread view that individuals should take responsibility for their families' future - 11th March
 * zone' is a euphemism for war. We'd be mad to try it'' - Cameron's urge to dust himself in military glory may be strong, but he should not interfere in the Libyan rebels' cause - 9th March
 * the LSE, in thrall to a dictator, Gaddafi was pure roast duck'' - The school's association with Libya's leader is just an extreme version of the predicament now facing all UK universities - 4th March
 * decry cuts, but spare the Philip Hammonds who fritter cash'' - Against prestige projects like aircraft carriers, the Olympics or high-speed rail, the poor taxpayer hardly gets a look-in - 2nd March
 * Christchurch's bell tower is a first step to easing the city's trauma'' - The spire lost in New Zealand's earthquake matters. Obliterating past treasures or leaving the scars of ruins never helps - 25th February
 * can push democracy or weapons – but not both'' - David Cameron's arms-sale tour has mired him in typical liberal interventionist hypocrisy. Better let the Arab world sort itself out - 23rd February
 * directs the boot of truth at the crotch of power. Long may it sting'' - After Baltimore's raucous HL Mencken died, some felt the age of the column was over. Yet today news is the endangered species - 18th February
 * cure for an ailing, ageing NHS is to cut it down to size'' - Since its nationalisation, the health service has defied sensible pruning. Losing 24,000 backroom staff would be a start - 16th February
 * giggle at his machismo – but Silvio Berlusconi has the last laugh'' - The EU claims to be the guardian of a democratic confederacy, and treats Serbia as beyond the pale. So why appease Italy? - 11th February
 * should uncap council tax and stop taking all the blame for the cuts'' - The coalition is getting the blame for councillors' decisions. To stop this, David Cameron should lift Thatcher's local tax cap - 9th February
 * the crime map shows up is Whitehall's pointless zest for data'' - Theresa May's crime map joins school league tables in its statistical fatuity. The information geeks need holding to account - 4th February
 * west's itch to meddle is no help. Leave Egypt alone'' - Our sole contribution to Muslim states wrestling with self-determination is plunging their neighbours into bloodbath and chaos - 2nd February
 * secrecy and privacy become things of the past, media ethics are in a mess'' - A journalist's job is to get the story, but electronic surveillance and the internet demand a new map of the boundaries - 28th January
 * protection from banks? A pile of ordure called Merlin'' - If half the cash showered on these casinos had gone to the high street, the economy wouldn't be in such double-dip straits - 26th January
 * like Stalin, wants to tell us what history to study. Well, let me tell him'' - From Canute to Thatcher, Britain is rich in stories of wisdom and folly. If only politicians could learn from others' mistakes - 21st January
 * all inquiries, Chilcot is a pageant, too late to matter'' - These surrogate courts of law should be crisp, swift and certain. Instead they slowly ensure none spill any establishment blood - 19th January
 * speech can't exist unchained. US politics needs the tonic of order'' - If America is to speak in a way that heals, as Obama wishes, it needs the curbs and regulations that make freedom of expression real - 14th January
 * state's pedlars of fear must be brought to account'' - Why have a private firm run police to spy on a few greens? The Ratcliffe Six case is a warning story of securocrats out of control - 12th January
 * castles built from postwar dreams must not be demolished'' - The Excalibur prefab estate in south London may be scruffy, but it's a precious chapter in the nation's story worth preserving - 7th January
 * the economy? No, VAT's pandering to the powerful'' - George Osborne's VAT rise illustrates an unbending truth of politics: it's easier to raise £13bn from the poor than upset VIPs - 5th January



Articles: 2010

 * glorious winter weather'' - Snowy slopes, blue skies. Ignore what you read in the papers – most people are having a lovely break - 24th December
 * localism bill shows Eric Pickles is Hazel Blears in super-sized wolf's clothing'' - Like his predecessors, communities secretary Eric Pickles set out on the road to localism but has swerved off into the fudge factory - 15th December
 * this World Cup sewer, we reptiles of British journalism hold our heads high'' - Let Fifa's murk be cleared. As WikiLeaks has shown, disclosure is all we have when audit is polluted and politicians are cowed - 3rd December
 * job of the media is not to protect power from embarrassment'' - It is for governments – not journalists – to guard public secrets, and there is no national jeopardy in WikiLeaks' revelations - 29th November
 * reforms: Napoleon Gove can dictate its terms but the school curriculum is bogus'' - Like his predecessors, the education secretary must fiddle. Yet his list will mean just as little for life beyond the school gate - 26th November
 * lesson: the Tories cannot give up central control'' - Programmed to resist devolution, the benefits of granting Holyrood the power to tax and spend have been sacrificed - 24th November
 * are in, and must stand proxy for biography, psychology, gossip and sex'' - Elections are won and royal fiancees analysed on looks alone. We accord appearance far more value than we dare admit - 19th November
 * coalition poker, broken promises are small change'' - It's absurd for Lib Dems to berate Clegg on tuition fees. If you want the smooth of PR, you take the rough of compromise - 17th November
 * England do 'lose' the 2018 World Cup, it may be in a noble cause'' - It is feared that the BBC's Panorama may derail the FA's tournament bid. But scrutiny of the murky world of sport is crucial - 12th November
 * Britain can beg for scraps from China and tell them how to behave'' - David Cameron says he will drum up trade in China, and tackle human rights. It is an exercise in bluff concealing hypocrisy - 10th November
 * Britain really need the military?'' - Our armed forces were made to fight in conventional wars and cannot meet the real threats to modern Britain. So why must we pay £45bn for something that's so obsolete? - 5th November
 * Cable was going to tackle the waste called university life. He bottled it'' - Real reform was needed. But this coalition fudge on tuition fees will leave our medieval institutions unruffled by change - 5th November
 * drugs hypocrisy is a giant self-inflicted wound'' - No minister has the guts to do what's needed on narcotics: make it harder to drink alcohol, and legalise and tax the rest - 3rd November
 * saved our Victorian cities. Now they are demolishing my prejudices'' - Perhaps one day a 21st Century Society battling to preserve Canary Wharf will emulate the heroes of our Victorian heritage - 29th October
 * with banks won't do. Osborne needs a plan B'' - Supporters of cuts can still fear a recession. The lenders will pay no heed: demand and jobs must be kickstarted elsewhere - 27th October
 * they bow to London's arts mafiosi, the Tories still handcuff the provinces'' - The cultural axe spared our gilded elite to chop local grants. It's only fair to let those councils now raise their own taxes - 22nd October
 * review: So, the RAF is going to target cyber-nerds with drones?'' - Years of capitulation to the defence industry has led to this absurd review, where 'threats' and solutions do not match- 20th October
 * from the rich and clobbering the middle, Cameron looks like a lefty'' - Pension relief, graduate loans and child benefit all hurt the better-off. Now the axe will hit the public sector's well-paid classes - 15th October
 * whingeing rivals actually have a case for once'' - He's the best thing that happened to our media. But he should accept a market geared to helping others challenge him - 13th October
 * shouldn't be afraid of the chisel and oil can'' - George Osborne's call for a manufacturing revival is welcome. Working by hand is better than doing it solely with the head - 8th October
 * the ship sinks, the elite grab all the lifeboats'' - Gilded professionals mobilise friends in the media to lobby against cuts – if only the poor could do the same - 6th October
 * Cameron is taking a big gamble with his own party'' - At what has become the 'cuts' conference, can the Conservative leader keep the troops happy or at least quiet? - 4th October
 * very afraid – we are being fleeced by purveyors of fear'' - Home Office threat levels are absurd abstractions of no help to anyone except the security lobby raising cash through fear - 1st October
 * about Ed's redness. The economy is the only game in town'' - Osborne has taken an almighty gamble. If Britain double-dips into recession, Ed Miliband will hold all the cards - 29th September
 * to a lootfest like London or Beijing, Delhi is just an also-ran'' - Yes, India's planners take gold in the corruption stakes. But the real culprit is international sport's bloated chauvinism - 24th September
 * middle-class escape tunnel parents don't want'' - He may see them as a way of saving children from local politics – but Gove's free schools are just a blackboard Tea Party - 22nd September
 * coalition, Nick Clegg chose glory in death'' - Nick Clegg's love affair has brought the Liberal Democrats short-term power. But longer term, the deal is a suicide note - 17th September
 * must act to spread the blame on cuts – and fast'' - As TUC delegates swap dark scenarios and public approval of the coalition falls, it's time for councils to join the 'big society' too - 15th September
 * 'war on drugs' has been an abysmal failure. Just look at Mexico'' - The west's refusal to countenance drug legalisation has fuelled anarchy, profiteering and misery - 10th September
 * budget? I prefer to call it expensive showing off'' - The armed forces chiefs don't like it up 'em – but at last a government is putting their gargantuan spending to the sword - 8th September
 * job was done by 1997: to numb Labour, and to enshrine Thatcherism'' - In Downing Street, Blair never fulfilled his early promise and let Brown in. Now he can only emit a long wail of impotence - 3rd September
 * trillion-dollar catastrophe. Yes, Iraq was a headline war'' - Mission accomplished? The Iraq war did more than anything to alienate the Atlantic powers from the rest of the world - 1st September
 * the name of purity, public funds are wasted on the rich'' - From IVF to universities and museums, Britain's aversion to charging for services punishes women, students and the poor - 25th August
 * spilled. But hysteria did the real damage in the Gulf'' - From the BP leak to terror or ash clouds, politics has spurned its most precious responsibility: to react proportionately to danger - 18th August
 * Cameron gets radical, the left dozes on planet 1945'' - The coalition is seeking to redefine the individual's relationship with the state. From Labour we get not a peep - 11th August
 * Treasury whinge at banks won't pull us from the mire'' - The bonuses are obscene, but the government can't tell bankers to lend while it cuts demand and drives us back into recession - 4th August
 * spender Boris should spend a little less on Londoners like me'' - The capital must take its share of cuts. But if the mayor insists on public project behemoths, he must be free to fund them - 30th July
 * history of folly, from the Trojan horse to Afghanistan'' - By recording failure in meticulous detail, the leaked war logs bear devastating witness to our incompetence - 28th July
 * told the truth on Iraq. It's for Cameron to end a decade of pretence'' - The coalition inherited a mendacious foreign policy, leading to two disastrous wars. Time now for an honourable peace - 23rd July
 * this howl of protest – the police are ripe for cuts'' - Spending has doubled, and yet the number of officers on the beat has fallen – something is seriously awry - 20th July
 * best way to finance universities is to make the participants pay'' - Vince Cable was right to take aim at universities, but wrong on a graduate tax that will make them more chained to the state - 16th July
 * must hold his VAT hike to avert the double dip'' - All the signals are flipping to danger. The chancellor is taking too big a gamble by cooling both public and private spending - 14th July
 * is a catastrophe. But we will have to wait for a new Chilcot to admit it'' - Our leaders would rather avoid embarrassment than be honest about the horrific futility of the wars we are fighting - 9th July (Afghanistan: summary)
 * democracy? No, Clegg's is a pledge for opportunism'' - As we saw in May, the proposals put forward by Nick Clegg will lead to a Westminster oligarchy of party leaders and officials - 7th July
 * Russians have spy rings. We have trooping the colour'' - This nostalgic yarn shows how security services, like the armed forces, are struggling to find a new role in a changed world - 30th June
 * Rees makes a religion out of science so his bishops can gather their tithe'' - The BBC's reverence for genes, space and bugs gives its Reith lecturer a claim to public money based on faith, not reason - 25th June
 * Belgium is leading the way. Today Flanders, tomorrow Scotland'' - However much Euro-enthusiasts wish it were otherwise, the craving for lower-tier self-rule refuses to die - 18th June
 * or cuts, hawks or doves? We are lost in a fiscal fog'' - Professionals cannot simply agree to disagree. Economics is behaviour, and subject to science as much as politics - 16th June
 * for an elected Lords is not about democracy, but grabbing power'' - The second chamber's job is to deliberate, not legislate. Elections would just put the peers firmly under Commons control - 11th June
 * once-in-a-generation cut? The armed forces. All of them'' - We are safer than at any time since the Norman conquest. Yet £45bn is spent defending Britain against fantasy enemies - 9th June
 * every adult is a paedophile, a terrorist or a mass murderer'' - As the Cumbria shootings show, there's no such thing as safe. Stop spending money on the security lobby that is running amok in the public sector - 4th June
 * Cameron hasten the end of our absurd Afghan war'' - Rather than send British troops to Kandahar, the cabinet should admit the obvious and start to plan how best to leave - 2nd June
 * claim to be 'freeing' schools is a cloak for more control from the centre'' - This dreary abuse of local democracy was tried by Thatcher and Blair. All people want is fair access to a good, nearby school - 28th May
 * Hardly. But Cameron is so much more than Blair reincarnated'' - The Queen's speech may cleanse only Labour's most fouled stables. Yet Cameron has proved an original political personality - 26th May
 * half page of waffle will not do to bind the shreds of union'' - Its spectre hangs over his party's history but that mustn't stop the Tory leader striving to build a more modest EU - 21st May
 * coalition for cuts? Canada, not Thatcher, is the model'' - Osborne and Cameron need to seek a wider deal than any yet seen. This is a matter of economic science, not ideology - 19th May
 * happened to the Big Society? It was killed by proximity to power'' - It didn't play well on the doorstep, so it had to go. But if Cameron is wise, he'll revive localism, and only Pickles can deliver it - 14th May
 * new PM will need the guile of Disraeli. And the luck'' - David Cameron's quite remarkable political coup is only the start of what will be a volatile year in British politics - 12th May (Cif at the polls)
 * is the best place to be'' - Forget coalition. The real competition is not for power now, but for power after the next election - 11th May
 * closely, fluffy bunnies of electoral reform'' - A once ailing Tory party has been restored to life – and we have been given a glimpse of life under proportional voting - 8th May
 * Cameron hugs Nick Clegg close'' - David Cameron's 'comprehensive offer' of coalition partnership to Nick Clegg may prove irresistible. But I predict it'll end in tears - 8th May
 * is what hung parliament means'' - The Lib Dems' ecstasy swiftly turns to agony as they confront their brief moment of power - 7th May
 * Lib Dem to feel good – or Tory to chuck Labour out'' - To present a Cameron cabinet as a reactionary throwback is silly, as is to imagine a vote for Clegg means electoral reform - 5th May
 * shows just why the Celts should be grilled on the BBC'' - Why should the Scots or Welsh cut jobs if London will pay? Locking them out of debate only feeds this accountability deficit - 30th April
 * Clegg enjoy his moment. Next week the horror begins'' - A coalition will split Nick Clegg's own party and make no progress on PR. His best bet is to grab a plum job and quit the Lib Dems - 28th April
 * lurks everywhere. Let the pilots handle ash'' - As with terrorism, swine flu and now aviation, the scientists offer absolutes rather than probabilities and the authorities panic - 23rd April
 * trauma in Britain's placid meadow of political concord'' - Nothing in the manifestos would turn a hair in a US election. But Americans are enjoying the sight of a presidential race, UK-style - 21st April
 * ash is the new swine flu panic'' - Putting large, heavy bits of metal into the air is just too much for the psyche of modern regulators – they panic - 19th April
 * democracy unravels at home, the west thuggishly exports it elsewhere'' - While the US and Britain slide towards oligarchy, the forced elections in Afghanistan and Iraq have brought no good - 9th April
 * of wild election pledges and perilous consensus'' - These weeks present a democratic hazard as parties fill manifestos with fantasy while crucial matters go undebated - 7th April
 * drug dealers will benefit from this absurd ban on mephedrone'' - Prohibition will drive supply underground, endanger users and make it tougher to wean addicts off harder drugs - 2nd April
 * long for a real Labour voice to slam this City-fearing trio'' - The TV debate proved it. Darling, Osborne and Cable still don't see they were conned into propping up the banks at our expense - 31st March
 * may gloat, but an assault is under way against the arts'' - Why is there such a huge funding bias towards science when the chief growth in graduate jobs has been elsewhere? - 26th March
 * the tooth fairy turns cuts into efficiency savings'' - Forget ideology. The new dividing line in politics is not left and right but a quiet life versus tough decisions close to home - 24th March
 * for dogs appeals, but giving animals rights is moral chaos'' - Better to assert the human qualities of kindness to all creatures and avoid unnecessary pain to any of them - 19th March
 * this munificent man and his lobbying machine'' - Willie Walsh is right - BA's dinosaur practices must be stamped out. Starting with the preference the airline gets from ministers- 17th March
 * bankers lied. And Darling, a mere puppet on their string, knows it'' - Britain has paid a horrific price for allowing the City to dictate credit policy. Yet there is no inquiry, no questioning, only silence - 12th March
 * has left justice to the tender mercies of the press'' - Under the banner of transparency, ministers have allowed a frenzy of blame to develop around the Jon Venables case - 10th March
 * at the inquiry, even Saddam would come up smelling of roses'' - No question discomfited Gordon Brown and he gave nothing away. You can see why witnesses have come to love Chilcot - 6th March
 * root of the Tories' dire Ashcroft gaffe is our medieval party funding'' - Politicians crave money but not accountability. Linking financial support to mass membership is the clear democratic way - 5th March
 * victory could harm Cameron'' - The Tory leader rejected a plea to 'set the people free', and this won't go down well with the party workers he depends on - 3rd March
 * Falklands can no longer remain as Britain's expensive nuisance'' - Distant colonies are an anachronism. Britain will have to negotiate with Argentina because the world will insist on it - 26th February
 * Newry to Helmand, the lessons are the same'' - Had Monday's car bomb exploded in London it would have been inflated into a terrorist atrocity, fuel for the Afghan war - 24th February
 * torture memos show how illegal wars turn even the nicest people bad'' - The deceit, the slaughter, the atrocity, the abuse of human rights. Today, Hannah Arendt's banality of evil is everywhere - 12th February
 * may take a Tory Tea Party to make Cameron coherent'' - Whether they play it safe or raise totems to party gods, Conservatives need to deliver a much clearer message on local control - 10th February
 * you are fallible. Get off the pedestal and join the common herd'' - Climatologists above all need to rediscover the virtue of self-criticism - or others will continue to question their evidence - 5th February
 * odious view, indeed. But I'm with Pope Benedict on this one'' - The pope's right to practise what he preaches needs defending in the face of Harriet Harman's intolerant equalities bill - 3rd February
 * Kindles, Nooks, iPads – none are as cool as Gutenberg's gadget'' - For 20 years I have been trying e-books and e-newspapers – but print on paper has outlasted every obituarist - 29th January
 * another 1988 moment. Universities can break free'' - Governing bodies must take advantage of this brief window to finally wrest back control over fees and teaching - 27th January
 * world of screens and plastic has fed a cultish craving for relics of the past'' - Ancient bones and shards are fast gaining mythical status, benefiting their priestly interpreters from museums to the BBC - 22nd January
 * nostalgia and edgy kit are no basis for sane defence'' - The head of the army is right: war today means boots on the ground, not bombs in the air or manoeuvres at sea - 20th January
 * flu was as elusive as WMD. The real threat is mad scientist syndrome'' - Remember the warnings of 65,000 dead? Health chiefs should admit they were wrong – yet again – about a global pandemic - 15th January
 * most brazen disdain for democracy in modern times'' - Bumper banker bonuses are back. And what is it really, if not grand-scale theft – from treasuries, customers and taxpayers - 13th January
 * proliferation of nuclear panic is politics at its most ghoulish'' - The risk from radiation is exaggerated. Worst-case scenario fantasies are used to justify wars that cause many more deaths - 8th January
 * rail will bleed us all for a few rich travellers'' - The politicians can drool over their new trains, but a crowded island needs a well-managed network, not an expensive fantasy - 6th January



Articles: 2009

 * £1m idea: the vote'' - The Tories will pay someone if they find a way of tapping the wisdom of crowds. They won't like my solution: more democracy - 30th December
 * blame the system for winter travel chaos. Stay put'' - Hypermobility is now the opium of the people, an obsession that wrecks communities and planet. There are no free trips - 23rd December
 * this gaseous burp explodes in the desert air, we'll still have the Burj Dubai'' - The 818-metre tower is a true wonder of the world, a fitting monument to Dubai as the capital of excess and irrational exuberance - 18th December 2009
 * its mania for jailing people, Britain has declared trivial offences crimes'' - A libertarian coalition is emerging in the US to resist an ever expanding statute book. The need is just as urgent here - 11th December
 * very British inquiry: a chat in a Whitehall club'' - The Chilcot inquiry met its first 'hostile' witness, Sir John Scarlett, former head of MI6 - 9th December
 * make me slash back bureaucracy. But not yet'' - Be it Labour or Tory, an insidious lobby sees off promises to cut a bloated public sector, and power stays stuck at the centre - 9th December
 * this mist of antique loveliness, the object is all. For history go elsewhere'' - I regard the magnificent new show at the V&A as essentially a taster – an invitation to voyage back from Kensington to origin - 4th December
 * idiot sanctions on Iran is a direct route to war'' - Britain has no interest in bullying Iran over nuclear proliferation. The very trap that led to Iraq and Afghanistan looms again - 2nd December
 * a city built on sand'' - Before the desert sands close over its luxury follies, lessons should be learned – number one, don't believe the hype - 28th November
 * shame, blame the bankers, if you like. But they're the wrong target'' - Regulators have long been suckered by 'too big to fail'. The Walker report has all the power of a feather duster - 27th November
 * want Blair's head. But Chilcot won't give it to us'' - The parliament that approved the war now bays for his blood. This inquiry is a way of getting MPs off the hook - 25th November
 * love affair with a city like London demands much more than an air-kiss'' - I know people who swear by the charms of Lagos or Grozny. For them, as me, a city is where friends are. Take note, Jan Morris - 20th November
 * down the militarists and get out of Afghanistan. No strings attached'' - Obama must call time on the Afghan war. Retreat can be spun as victory. But it can't be conditional on impossible objectives - 17th November
 * for Britain. Better for Europe. I'm backing Brown for EU president'' - While Brown's qualities are being neglected at home, the clunking fist could be just the thing to save us from Lisbon's rotten treaty - 13th November
 * feel for Brown. But he should have left the letter-writing to the Queen'' - Despite the hounding of the prime minister over his condolence letter, such acts of sympathy are best left to heads of state - 11th November
 * extraordinary old treasure chest revels in its new incarnation'' - The Ashmolean's curators have been truly bold. Old favourites gain new depth as chronology gives way to svelte modernism - 6th November
 * the drugs debate, politicians are intoxicated by cowardice'' - Nutt was the victim of an outdated taboo that neither Johnson nor Cameron appear to have the courage to challenge - 4th November
 * texts and lineage are no way to assemble state schools'' - The primitive barring of a child on ethnic grounds is the nadir of the pursuit of 'choice'. Pupils should go local, warts and all - 30th October
 * is toff economics, demand just for the proles'' - As the rest of the world comes out of recession by stimulating spending, we remain in snobbish thrall to the bankers - 28th October
 * banana republic police HQ maybe, but not a home for the Elgin marbles'' - I am a restitutionist – but the new museum fails to clinch the case. It is not so much an argument as a punch in the face - 23rd October
 * export of the ballot box elixir is pure hubris'' - The absurd expectation heaped on Afghanistan's election is a fig leaf for leaders seduced by the allure of military power - 21st October
 * are paying an enormous price for the myth that banks are too big to fail'' - Lloyds necks £5bn more and bankers binge. Where is the apology or inquest from those who brought our economy to its knees? - 16th October
 * bold, Obama. Resist the hawks crying one-last-push'' - A battle royal is being fought in Washington over the Afghanistan endgame. The sooner this war ends the better - 14th October
 * this leafy fantasy. For green living, head for Mumbai or New York'' - Ecotowns are a blind alley. It may be a dirty secret, but the most environmentally friendly places to live are big cities - 9th October
 * full of sound and fury, but signify next to nothing'' - Conference season 09: The election is in David Cameron's pocket. He has created a winning personality. But all this policy talk is sheer folly - 7th October
 * forgotten Saxon world that is part of Europe's modern heritage'' - The careful conservation of pre-industrial villages in Transylvania is Europe at its best, guarding the relics of its diversity - 2nd October
 * the police? It's all we know in feudal, feral Britain'' - Reaction to the Pilkington deaths was predictable in a nation where social activities are deterred and civic leadership is extinct - 30th September
 * are a farrago of show-offs. Gaddafi just does it better than most'' - The UN and the G20 are gigantic junkets, giving leaders the glamour of the world stage while precisely nothing is done - 25th September
 * want a gadfly party, not this rickety Ikea version'' - Merger with the statist Social Democrats killed the Liberal soul. Focus groups, not freedom, are what excites Nick Clegg - 23rd September
 * the credulous kiss their relics. It's no weirder than idolising Beckham'' - Sending the bones of St Thérèse to Wormwood Scrubs sounds ghoulish, but a test of tolerance is indulging the irrational - 18th September
 * but fair. The public sector must take the pain'' - Mandelson talking about cuts sounds like Marie Antoinette discussing cake. Forget semantics: spending must be slashed - 16th September
 * obsession with misery has turned us into a nation of whingers'' - A Martian listening to Radio 4 would have us all down as codeine addicts. The media have scarred our view of public life - 11th September
 * trial tells us it's policing, not war, that stops terrorists'' - The airline plot was not thwarted by soldiers in Helmand: the nearer the trail got to Afghanistan, in fact, the colder it got - 9th September
 * war on drugs is immoral idiocy. We need the courage of Argentina'' - While Latin American countries decriminalise narcotics, Britain persists in prohibition that causes vast human suffering - 4th September
 * End these bogus parallels. We are fighting no Nazis now - Any attempt to equate the war in Afghanistan with the great conflicts of the 20th century is a gross misuse of history - 2nd September
 * played the Megrahi case right. But for the most cynical reasons'' - This was not a question of Scottish sovereignty. It was about pouring money down the throat of commercial London - 27th August (see: Abdelbaset al-Megrahi)
 * Afghan election is a moment of truth for zealous liberal aggressors'' - A bombastic crusade has mutated into despair. Where next will they bless with democracy at the blast from a drone? - 20th August
 * best hope: delegate the axe'' - Devolve budgets to local councils and his party could avoid voter fury at the coming 'Tory cuts' - 14th August (with Tony Travers)
 * Guardian. Hello the Guardian Experience'' - A paywall will only delay newspapers' Dunkirk. But I saw the future at Glastonbury – it's time for print to go live - 11th August
 * Met Office thinks August will be wet. Buy futures in sun cream now'' - Like recent pandemic predictions, weather forecasting is best left to the private sector, to ball-gazers and seaweed - 31st July
 * defeat siren is sounding for Blair's vainglorious jihad in Afghanistan'' - The take-hold-and-build strategy is mere pastiche imperialism. All wars end in talking, as must this US vendetta in Afghanistan - 29th July
 * the elite's building funds dry up. Outside, cultural Britain is flourishing'' - Beyond taxpayer-funded temples of establishment art, people are flocking to participate in festivals – and paying to do so - 24th July
 * two months of swine flu sniffles, and madness reigns'' - Scaremongering officials are leading us to lose all sense of proportion and waste resources. People should take an aspirin - 22nd July
 * and turbines are a political slap in the face of the landscape'' - Climate change is like defence during the cold war, wrapped in hysteria of envy, class, greed and commercial interest - 17th July
 * must tell Obama: the alliance of denial has to end'' - Brown can salvage the diplomatic disgrace of Afghanistan if he acts as he is known to believe, and sets a withdrawal date - 15th July
 * who justify state snooping might now learn that biters can be bit'' - The News of the World phone-hacking scandal lays bare the chaos that surrounds our privacy and data security - 10th July (See: News of the World hacking story: summary)
 * back a Treasury with the steel to cut pay all round'' - A wage freeze is one of the least hurtful of public sector savings, but expect no assent from workers in the face of bosses' greed - 8th July
 * soldiers die, the MoD is stockpiling for the cold war'' - Defence ministers are too concerned with showing off their military muscle to provide what fighting forces actually need - 1st July
 * must call off this folly before Afghanistan becomes his Vietnam'' - Senseless slaughter and anti-western hysteria are all America and Britain's billions have paid for in a counterproductive war - 26th June
 * gaping hole calls for a new party. Let's call it Labour'' - The party I joined as a gullible student has been dismantled by Blair and Brown, and with it any voice for those on the left - 24th June
 * Iran there is no mob but courage, and the mystical power of the crowd'' - People have cast aside their concern for safety in a unified, unmistakable protest at a sense of being cheated by their rulers - 19th June
 * Iraq inquiry is barmy. At least it will be held in private'' - It is hard to see what more can be learned about this great blunder. There is another war, though, that demands investigation - 17th June
 * of archaic wonder they may be. But a medieval outlook won't pay'' - President-of-everything Mandelson could yet rescue our universities – if he can halt the ruinous reliance on state money - 12th June
 * wonder John Major is Gordon Brown's patron saint'' - With enemies like the Labour party, he needed no friends. But the prime minister had one in the form of his old rival, Blair - 10th June
 * voting revolution leads back to the arms of the Westminster club'' - Far from delivering the devolved politics that its supporters want, PR is a recipe for entrenching undemocratic elites - 5th June
 * parties have lost sight of the potency of the franchise'' - When voters' blood is up, there's no other target in public sight. Yet political leaders want fewer, not more representatives - 3rd June
 * China destroys its culture, Hong Kong proves that its people care'' - To those in power in Beijing, demolition is potency and rebuilding is glory. But don't assume this is a national view - 29th May
 * sounds stirring, but he's restating old verities'' - Britain is over-ruled, over-inspected and over-centralised. It's nice to know that the Tory leader thinks so too - 27th May
 * Humphrey would never let his minister be ambushed by Gurkhas'' - Labour has landed in the shambles of the Lumley affair by shunning the civil service's wisdom, checks and balances - 22nd May
 * answer lies in local democracy'' - A new politics: MPs are in no position to act as civic leaders. Directly elected mayors must take their place on the local stage - 20th May
 * Miliband's piccolo diplomacy'' - Blair at least walked the walk. But this foreign secretary can offer only feelgood gestures of episcopal concern - 20th May
 * should stick to his guns. The carbuncle crew are still hard at work'' - The glass boxes, blobs and phalluses thrown up now by architects show little has changed since the prince's 1984 speech - 15th May
 * mother of all expenses cock-ups is the stuff of banana republics'' - Hilarity aside, the exposé of expenses calls for a return to self-employed MPs – and a bouquet for old-fashioned journalism - 13th May
 * can lead a rally and win the next election. All he needs is a war'' - Forget the revisionist spin. The Falklands conflict rescued Thatcher. History chronicles the power of the beating drum - 8th May
 * is no known antidote for panic'' - It's sickening. Schools have shut and businesses have gone bust – all thanks to the swine flu doom-merchants - 6th May
 * Johnson: a new Dick Whittington'' - In a year as the capital's mayor, he has honoured his pledges and transformed the style and language of politics - 1st May
 * journalism disease – more contagious than swine flu?'' - The death rate from flu, even in Mexico, is still at about the normal rate, yet 'Armageddon' headlines abound - 30th April
 * flu? A panic stoked in order to posture and spend'' - Despite the hysteria, the risk to Britons' health is tiny - but that news won't sell papers or drugs, or justify the WHO's budget - 29th April
 * fool can raise a tax. But it takes a gutless one to splurge it on this stuff'' - Austerity vanishes when it comes to the prestige projects saddled on Britain. Ministers fear the IOC more than the IMF - 24th April
 * and the apologists of torture distrust democracy'' - The great threat to our way of life comes not from deranged fanatics but politicians who abuse the language of terror - 22nd April
 * futurologists don't want to hear it, but live performance is booming'' - The Bolívar orchestra is thrilling proof of the folly of writing off an activity because a new medium renders it 'obselete' - 17th April
 * Gordon's G20 failure is good news for the people'' - One silver lining to today's cloud is that the dreaded fiscal stimulus has been placed firmly back in the statist box - 8th April
 * spin and flam: these are trying times for those who treasure words'' - Our leaders have lost the rhetorical arts at the very moment when I most need to hear a speech of convincing reassurance - 3rd April
 * proof. The innocent do have something to fear'' - The crashing of Jacqui Smith's privacy shows that data 'security' is garbage. Yet gullible MPs still vote as if it existed - 1st April
 * hoarding of treasures is a scandal. They belong to the world'' - Scotland may want its chessmen back, but the real outrage is the vast number of objects our museums bury from view - 27th March
 * last we get it - this war is Vietnam for slow learners'' - Eight years of fighting has made no difference to the balance of power in Afghanistan. Only one word makes sense: exit - 25th March
 * they did Ozymandias, the dunes will reclaim the soaring folly of Dubai'' - This off-the-shelf city state, built on laundering the profits of oil, drugs, arms and western aid, stands on the brink - 20th March
 * Pat makes a better banker than Fred the Shred'' - After billions of bailout pounds have gone to waste, politicians could do worse than fund a Post Office people's bank - 18th March
 * Thatcher mythology condemns her strengths and excuses her failings'' - Twenty-five years after the miners' strike, a wave of drivel sees Thatcher daftly cast as originator of the financial crisis - 13th March
 * biggest mistake was not to be a bank boss'' - The contrast between her treatment and that of the financiers shows how far Labour has travelled from any sense of fairness - 11th March
 * used to a corrupt and chaotic South Africa. But don't write it off'' - As long as the opposition is strong enough, this great democracy can defy the moral contamination of a President Zuma - 6th March
 * banker welfare. Hand out cash and make us spend it'' - Billions have been tipped into a black hole, yet still lending is stalled. The economy needs urgent intravenous demand - 4th March
 * culture is skim, bribery, theft. Pay for performance is called salary'' - For the taxes of the poor to be topping up the pay of the rich is inexcusable. The cynicism of the farrago beggars belief - 20th February
 * thing unites Brown and Cameron: fear of 100 Borises'' - The Tory leader protests his localism every year, but like his opponents he just can't bear the idea of giving up central power - 18th February
 * v statesman: who can call the battle of the bicentennial men?'' - Lincoln's world may seem squalid compared with Darwin's voyage of discovery, yet progress relies on politicians too - 13th February
 * should put themselves on trial'' - Parliament has slept while the Treasury pursued the gigantic folly of tipping public money into a black hole of bank speculation - 11th February
 * poison of Guantánamo still courses through ministerial veins'' - The disregard for law and liberty threatens to taint our state indefinitely. A full, open inquiry could lift it out of this mess - 6th February
 * fertility wardens are the enemies of female liberation'' - Science can offer great new freedoms, but to the authorities women are not to be trusted with their own eggs or wombs - 4th February
 * real secrets we already have the one-and-a-half-year memoir rule'' - Paul Dacre is right to be cautious. Too much openness can often neuter impartiality and politicise advice - 30th January
 * sense has no place on the Brown-Darling Titanic'' - As the economic ship goes down, all lifeboats are for bankers, however hopeless they might be. Let the steelworkers sink - 28th January
 * is new. Even Gutenberg's ghost has returned to live in Silicon Valley'' - The neophilia of the boom years is over, and as the recession clouds gather there is a rush for the security of the past - 23rd January
 * nation has a bad case of mad Treasury disease'' - Brown and Darling's bid to seduce the banks is daft - they should turn to Keynes and focus on stimulating demand - 21st January
 * slaughter from the air is a barbarism that must be abolished'' - From Vietnam and Iraq to Gaza today, history testifies that aerial bombing is an ineffective, intolerable military tactic - 16th January
 * runway for jobs? It's time aviation's bluff was called'' - I would flatten rare toads for growth - but for all the airline lobby's cant, there is no wider economic case for expanding Heathrow - 14th January
 * all the wild apocalyptic punditry, recessions pass. This one will, too'' - Where economists fail, bishops, philosophers and gurus rush foolishly in. Despite them, we will muddle through again - 9th January
 * will cure ministers of illiberal headline addiction?'' - Whether it is ecstasy or knife crime, barely a week passes without some new statistical mendacity to sustain a dud policy - 7th January



Articles: 2008

 * banks we trust should not be the mantra for 2009'' - Bankers save the economy? You must be joking - they're far too busy feathering their own nests - 31st December 2008
 * rewriting of the Iraq debacle will fuel worse disaster in Afghanistan'' - An inquest into Blair's support for the invasion could fit on a postcard. Eager inquirers should turn their gaze to Kabul - 19th December 2008 (see: Face to face with the Taliban, The Guardian, 14th December 2008)
 * this public waste is born of a macho bigness fixation'' - From pension blunder to Sats debacle, oversized Whitehall bureaucracy wreaks havoc. But those with power cling to it - 17th December 2008
 * the poet was a bore and a prig. But on liberty he was majestic'' - His verse lacks the humanity or humour to stand the test of time. He remains an inspiration, however, on free speech - 12th December 2008
 * to hand us all a grand than hurl billions at banks'' - Call it unsophisticated and crude, but the best way to stop a slump is to shower people with cash and make them use it - 10th December 2008
 * cowering to an imaginary enemy, is not the country I once knew'' - Like McCarthy, Bush relied on a synthesised climate of fear. Obama inherits a nation that sees al-Qaida fiends at all turns - 5th December 2008
 * last this exhausted region is energised - by its old foe'' - From the Mediterranean to Islamabad, people battered for a decade by dreadful US policies are in the grip of Obamania - 3rd December 2008
 * show's diplomacy is for real - and it's worth a hundred Milibands'' - The V&A exhibition takes Syrians seriously in their own capital, unlike the hectoring speeches of the foreign secretary - 28th November 2008
 * who practise politics are dazzled by the dictatorship of the short term'' - Leaders always enjoy a boost in national crises. History suggests that the Tories should lie low and wait for the polls to turn - 21st November 2008
 * errors of Iraq are being repeated - and magnified'' - The awful prospect is of Obama and Brown, no fans of the 2003 invasion, blundering on in a more perilous war: Afghanistan - 19th November 2008
 * cannot hammer straight the crooked timber of mankind'' - Social workers under the cosh of compliance culture have less time than ever to understand problem families - 14th November 2008
 * not only the Queen. We're all screaming for an answer'' - This recession is a catastrophe that our government's economic advisers simply refused to believe would happen - 12th November 2008
 * the cliches about colour obscure the real challenges awaiting Obama'' - The world must get over its hysteria. The next US leader has Russia to deal with, and could face his own Cuban missile crisis - 7th November 2008
 * gunboat oratory over Congo is futile, cruel bravado'' - Miliband and Kouchner's hubristic threat to African leaders does little for those in desperate need of food, safety and shelter - 5th November 2008
 * stock is overpriced, and a crash could really hurt'' - Outlandish expectations can only render the task harder should he win - and make the impact of failure almost unbearable - 29th October 2008
 * the fat and cut the crap. Tough times demand an austerity Olympics'' - Britain cannot avoid staging the 2012 games. But recession is a golden opportunity to inject sanity into its budget - 24th October 2008
 * of the right to die is sheer religious primitivism'' - In years to come, those who argue against this most personal, and final, freedom will be seen as not just illiberal, but cruel - 22nd October 2008
 * a bull market for humility, and shares in kindness are soaring'' - My search for good news among the financial ruins is proving fruitful. In times of trouble Britons cling to a rare optimism - 17th October 2008
 * end of capitalism? No, just another burst bubble'' - Those drooling over the free market's collapse are wrong: this passing crisis is down to lax regulation and craven ministers - 15th October 2008
 * man, not even a banker, can be a beast or a fool on a great mountain'' - The credit crunch is best escaped on Cader Idris. Solace is to be found here in the eternity and predictability of nature - 10th October 2008
 * and the Commons ignored the ticking of bombs'' - Today must surely see the state become a bank. But the chancellor has been hopeless - and Westminster on holiday - 8th October 2008
 * was no sex-mad garret artist. The scribblers have got the wrong girl'' - The truth about the subject of this famous image has been trampled over by a salacious West End and Hollywood - 3rd October 2008
 * must show he can go beyond Blairite gimmicks'' - The scope for today's speech is limited. But the Tory leader has to prove he is about more than facile council tax pledges - 1st October 2008
 * is being saved by the mob'' - The current credit crisis will be George Bush's final poison pill to his successor - 28th September 2008
 * as A&E unit is a revelation that druid mumbo jumbo can't match'' - Science is now revealing the secrets of prehistoric Britain, and its answers are commonsensical rather than supernatural - 26th September 2008
 * was not the speech of a leader about to be unseated'' - Brown plainly expects those who slavishly queued at his door a year ago to back him into an election. Now they will - 24th September 2008
 * Macpherson deserves a medal for defying the health and safety gods'' - The press are idiots to condemn the model for cycling without a helmet. The real villains are over-active traffic managers - 19th September 2008
 * tribunal must tell us what to fix. And whom to punish'' - The state shirked its role while City stupidity and greed slid into thieving. When the crisis subsides, an inquiry is needed - 17th September 2008
 * neglect of our heritage is shameful - to be told it by outsiders doubly so'' - How, and why, did we get to the point where bureaucrats in Paris have to come to the rescue of British public design? - 12th September 2008
 * is what happens when a crime is redefined as war'' - The proper investigation of terrorist conspiracy has been wrecked by cynical politics. Meddling has again made us less safe - 10th September 2008
 * great hope of local politics has become Margaret Thatcher in a kilt'' - Alex Salmond is about to learn that abolishing property taxes offers political jam today, but wormwood tomorrow - 5th September 2008
 * need to panic. Falling house prices are good news'' - Myopic analysis in the media and politicians' propensity to meddle don't serve the market, or those who need a home - 3rd September 2008
 * 2012, the big winners are chauvinism and profligacy'' - The success of the British Olympic team in Beijing has been like that of British troops in battle - 27th August 2008
 * Europe, as in Asia, Nato leaves a trail of catastrophe'' - This outdated military alliance is playing with fire in Russia. In Pakistan and Afghanistan it is playing with dynamite - 20th August 2008
 * rebuking Russia? Putin must be splitting his sides'' - Moscow has to take some of the blame. But it is the west's policy of liberal interventionism that has fuelled war in Georgia - 13th August 2008
 * very British way to choose a ruler - down at one's club'' - Miliband has staked his claim to replace Brown. His fate will be decided not by voters, however, but by cabal and clique - 6th August 2008
 * This circus of minority sports is a PR triumph for a brutal regime - so far - The only vindication of giving the Olympics to China will be if its rulers are taken to task. To date, they've had it all their way - 25th July 2008
 * The concept of international justice will be on trial, too - Serbs will now look to The Hague for a kind of closure, but it is always better for a nation to seek atonement within itself - 23rd July 2008
 * This hate figure doesn't merit a state funeral. All she did was rescue Britain - Margaret Thatcher was a revolutionary leader who improved people's lives. The left's continued fury will serve to cheer her - 18th July 2008
 * The withdrawal dynamic is shifting Iraq's political plates - The surge is at best a crime-cutting exercise. It is the promise of Obama and disengagement that really concentrates minds - 16th July 2008
 * Tax and policy? You're lucky to have parking tickets and bin bags - Britain's local democratic deficit is the starkest variance between our politics and that of other western states - 11th July 2008
 * When the going gets tough, economists go very quiet - They're happy to take the credit in the good times, but the disciples of this false science are hard to find as recession looms - 9th July 2008
 * Let a church so fond of division test its worth in the marketplace of belief - Anglicanism is often the last servant of the poor; that it can tear itself apart in an absurd imperial argument is a tragedy - 4th July 2008
 * Sanctions are a coward's war. They only boost brutal rulers - Exhortations to stop buying from Zimbabwe may sound bold but such a strategy makes the poor poorer and the evil richer - 2nd June 2008
 * Blears' vision may appease builders, but it won't do much for the rest of us - The idea that the new planning bill will serve anything other than existing interests is Alice in Wonderland logic - 27th June 2008
 * We've done enough damage. All we can do is send food - Mugabe has a point on imperialism. Britain has no option but to sit out the Zimbabwean tragedy, impotent on the sidelines - 25th June 2008
 * This icon of 60s New Brutalism has its champions. So let them restore it - Architects and developers who want to save Robin Hood Gardens should put their money where their mouths have boldly gone - 20th June 2008
 * Scotland's gullible politicians are the victims of a colossal Trump try-on - The tycoon's plans are about luxury holiday homes, not fairways. It will be an environmental outrage if they go ahead - 13th June 2008
 * These are the teachings of wild intervention and vanity - Ed Balls's embrace of academies forms part of a cull of community Britain. Stable schools are firmly rooted in locality - 11th June 2008
 * Maths? I breakfasted on quadratic equations, but it was a waste of time - Championing a difficult discipline of no use merely panders to the political correctness of the conservative classes - 6th June 2008
 * The government has failed to make the case for 42 days - Detention without charge cannot simply be regarded as a matter of police convenience in a good cause - 4th June 2008
 * Once, 'international' sounded saintly. Now it means bureaucracy and waste - From Eurovision and the Olympics to the UN and the World Bank, a deficit of accountability drains all true legitimacy - 30th May 2008
 * If I were Brown, I'd tell the whole lot of them to get lost - With nothing left to lose, now is the time to do what feels right on Iraq or ID cards, and to stop chasing cheap popularity - 28th May 2008
 * In these drab tenements and vacant lots, a community's memories cling on - From inner London to the Lower East Side, conservation is about identity and psychology as much as buildings - 23rd May 2008
 * The world and its media are playing the dictators' game - Heroic Chinese rescuers and quake survivors lead the news. But away from our TVs, the Burmese we could save are left to die - 21st May 2008
 * When it comes to kissing and telling, you can't beat this 15th-century gadget - The flood of memoirs has again proved the worth of the book as a receptacle for almost all the human imagination can devise - 16th May 2008
 * As Burma dies, our macho invaders sit on their hands - The Chinese quake gave relief to western leaders whose hypocrisy on intervention is exposed by post-cyclone inaction - 14th May 2008
 * In the battle of the birds, whose side are we really meant to be on? - Flourishing, protected populations of raptors are wreaking carnage on Britain's songbirds - and ripping apart the RSPB - 9th May 2008
 * Policy won't cut it. Voters want charm and novelty - Brown's salvage effort looks stuck in a time warp. He'd do better to cheer up and seek a charisma implant - 7th May 2008
 * The tide has turned - Local elections 08: This is a sea change. And most significantly, David Cameron now looks like a realistic prospect for prime minister - 2nd May 2008
 * Even an atheist can marvel at this exquisite refuge for the urban poor - The comfort given to all in the gloriously restored St Martin-in-the-Fields shows how the church excels at unofficial welfare - 2nd May 2008
 * The only message being sent is of cowardice and stupidity - This pseudo-tough move to reclassify cannabis flies in the face of the science and delivers a boost to the illicit drugs market - 30th April 2008
 * The White House race is a catalogue of misspeaking - When no great issues divide the political tribes, aspirants are defined by their mishaps - and how they bounce back - 25th April 2008
 * Despite Iraq, America's love affair with war runs deep - Conflict is still seen as crucial - and very, very far away. The next leader faces quite some task to confront this attachment - 23rd April 2008
 * Betjeman's discreet, dignified muse makes today's look like mere groupies - The woman who inspired his famous love poem never kissed nor told, but was the ideal subject to eroticise suburban tennis - 18th April 2008
 * The cost of green tinkering is in famine and starvation - Biofuels threaten food supplies, rainforest and climate - yet our leaders push them in the name of the environment - 16th April 2008
 * Atheist versus Bishop - As religious objections to the embryology bill mark the latest skirmish between faith and reason, Simon Jenkins and Richard Harries confront their differences head-on - 12th April 2008
 * Here's to the mob, for its humiliation of dictators and hypocrites alike - The hubris of China and the IOC's torch relay have given protesters a golden chance to derail a grossly tainted Olympics - 11th April 2008
 * The occupation has frozen Iraq. All else is tinkering - Yesterday's declaration by General Petraeus that the surge must go on will simply prolong the country's agony - 9th April 2008
 * This sporting fiasco - Yesterday's Olympic flame relay through London was a disaster: the government should never have sanctioned it - 7th April 2008
 * Ecotowns are the greatest try-on in the history of property speculation - The plan for 15 new settlements is a builder's dream - but only our existing cities actually serve the green agenda - 4th April 2008
 * Tough? Brown looks more like an image-obsessed wimp - This gutter government looks anything but strong in its unnecessary, unpopular bid to extend detention without charge - 2nd April 2008
 * The dazzling walls of medieval England deserve a bold restorer - These enigmatic church murals were once the national gallery. Art conservation must bring them back to brilliant life - 21st March 2008
 * Closure mania ignores the real cost of axing post offices - The state's pursuit of shortsighted savings is ripping the heart from communities. No wonder Britain is up in arms - 19th March 2008
 * Scientists and soldiers can no longer keep these paradises to themselves - It is wrong to ban tourists and prospectors from the Arctic and Antarctic. The poles must be governed for the benefit of all - 14th March 2008
 * They preach citizenship, but are terrified of losing power - Real participation is not bestowed by politicians. New Labour needs to get over its obsessional aversion to voting - 12th March 2008
 * Bigotry and violence made Paisley and Adams the Taliban of Europe - They say they brought peace to Northern Ireland - but delayed it so long that the peace is fragile and the land traumatised - 7th March 2008
 * Democracy is ill served by its self-appointed guardians - Our sonorous moralising lies behind so much bloodshed in the past 50 years. A sense of history surely counsels humility - 5th March 2008
 * A princely blunder - Whoever sent Harry to Afghanistan was taking an almighty risk, apparently motivated by the fear of adverse publicity - 29th February 2008
 * Rip out the traffic lights and railings. Our streets are better without them - Drivers and pedestrians negotiating shared space is shown to cut accidents and traffic, yet flat-earth planners won't believe it - 29th February 2008
 * Instead of elected local leaders, we have the police - Our society has no tier between individuals and the central state - and nobody to enforce communal discipline - 27th February 2008
 * Blair risks ending up as one more crusader in the Levantine ditch - Europe has never been unified, and its history is littered with the failed ambitions of those who would wear the crown - 22nd February 2008
 * The state is utterly clueless on the public-private divide - Northern Rock is far from unique. The government has long been throwing cash at behemoths that have failed to deliver - 20th February 2008
 * A travesty of justice - The inquest into the death of Diana rumbles on this week. It has been a sorry farrago for British jurisprudence - 18th february 2008
 * The Olympics is a festival of politics worth every penny to a fascist state - am against boycotts, but we must not pretend the games are anything other than a grotesque display of chauvinism - 15th February 2008
 * This zeal for intervention is imperialism in new clothes - The foreign secretary speaks as part of a political generation with no experience of war and little sense of history - 13th February 2008
 * No topic is so surrounded by myth as the golden age of the press - Anti-newspaper diatribes bewail falling standards. That's rubbish, and the glory days they hark back to were dreadful - 8th February 2008
 * Britain is slithering down the road towards a police state - The pretence of oversight has been ripped aside by the Khan bugging affair: the security apparat has become a law unto itself - 6th February 2008
 * Infatuated with Sarkozy's infatuation, France is blind to his recklessness - The president is eager to give France a new world confidence, but he has so far proved impetuous in matters of heart and state - 1st February 2008
 * The 'war on terror' licenses a new stupidity in geopolitics - The language loved by Bush and Musharraf has translated into a global disaster bringing death and misery to millions - 30th January 2008
 * Forget saving it for the nation - great art must be freed from the vaults - It's better for a Monet or a Matisse to be shown in Los Angeles or Dubai than to lie in a basement in Moscow or London - 25th January 2008
 * Denying us a vote on the EU treaty is arrogant cowardice - Without the debate a referendum would bring, Britons will rebel against unsanctioned meddling, to the union's detriment - 23rd January 2008
 * Russia's assault on the British Council reveals the true nature of diplomacy - 18th January 2008
 * Bush's trip, without principle or plan, had one big winner - In talking war and being feted by autocrats in the Gulf, the US president just drummed up more support for Ahmadinejad - 16th January 2008
 * Here in the city of Kim, Pakistan's magnificent history is being left to rot - Musharraf has allowed one of the wonders of Asia to disintegrate; and a country that neglects its past endangers its future - 11th January 2008
 * The west has not just repressed democracy. It has aided terror - Pakistan has as many paradigms as pundits. What is clear, however, is that meddling will only ever foment disorder - 9th January 2008
 * Britain has too many flaws to lecture about democracy - Hectoring phone calls from a post-imperial nanny won't help Kenya or Pakistan create stable and prosperous societies - 2nd January 2008



Evening Standard:
Column name:

Remit/Info: London issues

Section:

Role: Commentator

Pen-name:

Email:

Personal website:

Website: Evening Standard / Simon Jenkins

Commissioning editor:

Day published: Tuesday

Regularity: weekly

Column format:

Average length:



Articles: 2009

 * These expenses scams violate the spirit of the law – and MPs know it - It may not be fraud but as accusations of diddling the taxpayer reach the top of government we are owed more than excuses from those we elect - 7th April 2009
 * One great capital city, 20 world leaders – and 40,000 holes in the road - As heads of state gather for the G20 summit, they will find a London disfigured by the digging-up of its streetscape - 31st March 2009
 * Stay home, swap notes by email: London does not need this G20 summit - Next week’s G20 meeting of world leaders in London will cost millions but nothing will emerge except hot air and protests. We should have called the whole thing off - 24th March 2009
 * You’ve brought the Tube to its knees, Gordon. Now take the blame - The Treasury has told the Mayor he must fill a looming £1.4 billion hole in the capital’s transport budget. Yet it was Whitehall that got us in this mess from the start - 17th March 2009
 * Immigrants are good for us. Let them stay - and pay their taxes - The Mayor, Boris Johnson, wants a government amnesty for the estimated half million illegal immigrants now living and (mostly) working in London - 10th March 2009
 * Compared to Boris, Mayor Sugar would really mean business - There is only one name mentioned by Labour’s ‘Stop Ken’ campaign who can win back City Hall. But does the party have the courage to say ‘you’re hired’ to Britain’s favourite entrepreneur? - 3rd March 2009
 * Spare London’s skyline yet another episode of these faulty towers - London towers policy is in chaos. Boris Johnson, elected on a pledge to stop the plague of towers promised by his predecessor, Ken Livingstone, now wants towers everywhere - 27th February 2009
 * Keeping up with the Joneses - The Welsh are back in the limelight, to the delight of one London Welshman, as their stars shine in music, TV and sport - 20th February 2009
 * London’s melting pot deserves better than this theatre of cliché - A new production at the National Theatre lectures its audience on racism. But pandering to like-minded liberals doesn’t get to the heart of the matter - 17th February 2009
 * Calm down: not all our bankers should suffer for the sins of the few - Today and tomorrow a Commons committee will be running what has been trailed as the credit-crunch Nuremberg - 10th February 2009
 * When London cast its care aside and became a great white wonder - The snow may have brought our workaday city to a halt, but we should defy the moaners and make the most of it while it lasts - 3rd February 2009
 * First job for the new Met Chief: bring back the feel-safe factor - The announcement of the new Commissioner is imminent ‑ he needs to ditch the Government’s targets and pay more heed to Londoners’ wishes - 27th January 2009

Simon Jenkins column returns to Evening Standard - Press Gazette, 19th January 2009

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The Sunday Times:
Column name:

Remit/Info: Politics and media, democracy, civil rights, environment, education

Section: Features

Role: Commentator

Pen-name:

Email: [mailto:simon.jenkins@sunday-times.co.uk simon.jenkins@sunday-times.co.uk]

Website: TimesOnline / Columnists

Commissioning editor:

Day published: Sunday

Regularity: Weekly

Column format:

Average length: 1400 words

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Articles: 2008
Column ends "...Next month Simon Jenkins takes up the chairmanship of the National Trust"
 * My farewell plea to MPs: defend liberty - Is Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, a pocket dictator? Is there no drop of liberalism in her veins, no concept of personal freedom, no fear of a repressive state? Or is she just another home secretary? - 26th October 2008
 * fires first shot in this mad war'' - It is obscene to justify Afghanistan's carnage by citing a few rebuilt Afghan schools and roads - 19th October 2008
 * are rewards for all in this crunch'' - As the New York mayor said after the 9/11 attacks, take the kids to the park, buy a pizza, see a show - 12th October 2008
 * has wielded a cosh for real policing'' - Boris Johnson was right and within his rights to ask the head of the Metropolitan police to go - 5th October 2008
 * lack of guts let the spivs roam free'' - The crash of 2008 has proved that capitalism, like any system of human behaviour, needs policing - 21st September 2008
 * student fees, vice-chancellor'' - Universities must bite the bullet and charge their students what their courses cost - 14th September 2008
 * big bang and ... big problems are ignored'' - Recreating the formation of the Universe is much more glitzy than prison reforms, hospital cleaning and inner-city schools - 7th September 2008
 * offer: an end to US stupidity'' - Americans cannot begin to realise how powerful a message the election of a black president would be - 31st August 2008
 * tilt at windmills as war looms'' - The world is run by a generation of leaders who have never known global war. Has this dulled their senses? - 24th August 2008
 * the north a go at running itself'' - The reason for peculiar failure in Britain has been the emasculation of local leadership and its replacement with central government - 17th August 2008
 * spy an Olympic crack in China’s wall'' - China must realise that progress on the world stage cannot be divorced from certain freedoms - 10th August 2008
 * Et voilà, France has a better way of justice - 3rd August 2008
 * Glasgow spells the end of 300-year union - A new spirit of Scottish identity has emerged into which the Scottish National party has tapped - 27th July 2008
 * A broad church with narrow attitudes - The visible loathing of some Anglicans for gays and women is indefensible - 20th July 2008
 * Sanctions are a war waged by cowards - Nothing is more arrogant than a powerful nation’s belief in the efficacy of all it does - 13th July 2008
 * Computer says get a life – and we have - Futurology has a built-in distortion towards technological novelty, while ignoring the continued appeal of what has gone before - 6th July 2008
 * Two years and two giant tasks ahead for lame duck Gordon - Never has a political tribe turned so swiftly on its chief and beaten him close to death - 29th July 2008
 * Stop killing the Taliban – they offer the best hope of beating Al-Qaeda - 22nd June 2008
 * All that a school needs to succeed is a head who’s good with a razor - 15th June 2008
 * You’re safe, Mr Mugabe; we will not act - Where now are the fine words of the international community in the Noble Nineties, boasting the new doctrine of humanitarian intervention? - 8th June 2008
 * Oh do pay attention, 007, this enemy simply isn’t worthy of you - 1st June 2008
 * Oil costs up, house prices down - good news - The market has delivered in months what the Treasury failed to force on us, a better husbanding of scarce resources - 25th May 2008
 * Family planning is one area in which we don’t need MPs’ help - Antediluvian lobbyists and their press allies shriek ‘hybrid’ and ‘Frankenstein’ yet nobody wants to create monsters - 18th May 2008
 * Silence from our sabre rattlers as Burma’s dying cry out to be saved - What are we waiting for? Where now is liberal interventionism? - 11th May 2008
 * Now mayor Boris must spark an electoral surge nationwide - 4th May 2008
 * Clinton’s battering of Obama is brutal, bloody – and fair - 27th April 2008
 * Every city needs a Ken v Boris show – it brings local politics back to life - 20th April 2008
 * There is no crisis. Buying your own home is a luxury, not a right - The only victims are those encouraged by ministers to take on debts they could not afford - 13th April 2008
 * Stand up, for today you can force China through a tunnel of shame - The London torch procession shows how craven Britain has become: ignore it or protest - 6th April 2008
 * The rise of imperialism lite is prolonging the Iraqi horror - 16th March 2008
 * Americans elect two presidents: one for them and one for the world - 9th March 2008
 * Defy the flying monster for once, Brown, and stop this runway - It makes sense not to build another London airport but direct traffic, whether it likes it or not, to local airports - 2nd March 2008

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News & updates:

 * The Inventory: Simon Jenkins. Interview by Hester Lacey, 21st December 2013
 * Planning reforms: applications will be 'slammed in' under new rules - The chairman of the National Trust, Simon Jenkins, has warned there may be an influx of landowners "slamming in planning applications" under new planning rules to be announced today - The Telegraph, 27th March 2012

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References:
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Links:

 * Wikipedia biog.
 * Sir Simon Jenkins: History man by Andy McSmith (The Independent 5th July 2008)