Tag: Jenkins
Boris Johnson created this Brexit mess in Northern Ireland – and he should own it
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Two of Boris Johnson’s most reckless chickens are coming home to roost. To get hard Brexit into law and topple his predecessor, Theresa May, he told Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist party that he would allow no ...
Michael Gove is right about one thing: building more homes won’t solve anything
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Boris Johnson’s Queen’s speech was largely empty of substance. So thank goodness for the housing and planning secretary, Michael Gove. In his contribution he never spoke truer words, at least if anyone understood them...
You say Partygate, I say Beergate – let’s call the whole thing off
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Partygate should be declared over, done with, expiated, spent. All known “criminals” who consumed a can of beer or glass of prosecco at the wrong time or place should be amnestied. Yes, it was outrageous. It was hypoc...
Let me introduce you to the plan for London’s latest eyesore – the slab
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I could not imagine that London might inflict any more visual damage to the Thames than it has already done. No city on earth has made such a mess of its river. But one of its biggest and most aggressive office blocks...
The NHS used to be a religion. But the faith is being tested like never before
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Now England has “dental deserts”. According to the Association of Dental Groups, large areas of the country are devoid of their care. Dentists are leaving the NHS in record numbers – more than 2,000 last year alone – ...
Liz Truss risks recklessly inflaming Ukraine’s war to serve her own ambition
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The foreign secretary, Liz Truss, is playing with fire. On Wednesday night she described Russia’s Vladimir Putin as a “rogue operator” lacking rationality, and with “no interest in international norms”. As a result, s...
Boris Johnson’s guilt is beyond doubt. There is no way back from this
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Boris Johnson is in serious trouble. He faces danger on all fronts. His capitulation to the Commons privileges committee leaves him open to the risk of being found lying to parliament. Resignation would have to follow...
The Rwanda plan for refugees is shocking, but we don’t need to bring God into it
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Boris Johnson’s government’s proposal to deport asylum seekers of whatever origin who arrive on unauthorised routes, such as by crossing the Channel, to Rwanda in east Africa is beyond callous. It is understandable th...
Heed the events in France – populism is gaining ground and only a revolution can stop it
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If today’s democracy teaches any lesson it is don’t underestimate populism. Insult it, deride it, excuse it, no-platform it, but it is a serious force in electoral politics. In France, Marine Le Pen has surged into co...
British sovereignty over the Falklands is an absurd imperial hangover that must end
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This April is the 40th anniversary of the start of the Falklands war. Less well known is that it is the 41st anniversary of a final attempt by the British government to concede sovereignty over the islands to the enem...
Will Putin ever be held responsible for the atrocities we’re seeing in Bucha?
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The evidence of atrocities by Russian troops as they retreat from central Ukraine is appalling. Denials and claims of fabrication out of Moscow are worthless. The alleged massacres in Bucha and elsewhere cannot be put...
Biden is a diplomatic liability. He’s playing into Putin’s hands
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An iron maxim of war is to imagine what your enemy most wants you to do, and not to do it. Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is floundering. He has lied to the Russian people to justify it. He has told them it is n...
Bringing the outside inside
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Summertime! And the living is uneasy. After two years of keeping clear, Covid catches up with us. First Henri and then me. There is fever and coughing, like flu. But the sun shines. The magnolia is alive with bloom an...
Two years ago I said I was taking Covid ‘with a pinch of salt’ – perhaps I was wrong
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Scientists must long to travel back two years and revisit their Covid predictions. So too must commentators who relied on them. That March of 2020 was a nightmare month for the great game of prediction. Boris Johnson’...
Beware, Boris Johnson: in war, drawing historical parallels is a dangerous game
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No, the war in Ukraine is not like Brexit. No, the Russians are not Nazis, nor are the Ukrainians. No, Boris Johnson is not Churchill or Pericles, and the third world war has not begun, unless we choose to begin it. S...
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s ordeal shows the uselessness of economic sanctions
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Joy at the release of two Britons from an Iranian jail should not conceal the squalid diplomacy revealed by their ordeal. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori have been victims of the latest weapon of wester...