Simon Jenkins
Simon Jenkins
Sir Simon David Jenkins FSA FRSLis an English newspaper columnist, editor and author...
worst
But the worst I think is the racism,
adding
We are not replacing church, we are adding really.
british clearly fact given happiness heads health lived mother prince queen senior simply state therefore wales wish
Given that her mother lived to 101, the Queen is clearly in for the long haul. Therefore the Prince of Wales must simply wait. We can only wish his mother all health and happiness and get used to the fact that British heads of state will, in future, be very senior citizens.
churches collect encourage partly stop
We collect them partly out of mischief, ... but also to encourage churches to stop making an ass of themselves.
allow far freedom possible sort speech
We want to allow freedom of speech as far as possible but we can't allow that sort of thing.
ark blown four game internet number previous reality
It has blown everything out of the water. It is four times the number for our previous project, an Internet Noah's Ark reality game show.
europe america history
Without history we are infants. Ask what binds the British Isles more closely to America than to Europe and only history gives a reply. Of all intellectual pursuits, history is the most supremely useful. That is why people crave it and need ever more of it.
children lying reality
Why do Britons keep stabbing each other in August? Why do seaside hotels burn down in August? Why do children disappear in August, examinations get easier and Heathrow become the world's worst airport? The answer lies not in reality but in appearance. News editors abhor a vacuum. Half an hour of airtime and 10 pages of news must be filled each day, whatever the weather.
weekend essence america
Nowhere in politics is there such a mismatch between public and private realm as in transport. Everyone on the M6 last weekend would have agreed with Transport Minister Alasdair Darling's reported hatred of cars. They too wanted drivers off the roads and on to public transport. Go to it, Mr Darling, they cried in unison, get rid of all those cars. Except, of course, their own. Other people's cars are traffic. My car is the outward essence of my being. It is my hat, stick and cane. It embodies my freedom as a citizen and my right as a democrat. My car is my soul in flight.
war blood years
Every generation has its war. I have just been reminded of mine. It ended in 1989, 43 years after it began, the longest war Britain fought and certainly the most expensive. Its climax was total victory. Yet there was no parade, no medals, no colours hung in cathedrals. The Cold War saw no battles and cost almost no blood. Where there is no blood there is no glory and hence no history. Asked What did you do in the war, Daddy?, I could say only that I paid my taxes and left it at that.
sacrifice wind government
The (U.K.) government's thesis that the countryside of upland and coastal Britain is 'worth sacrificing to save the planet' is an insult to science, economics and politics. But the greatest insult is to aesthetics. The trouble is that aesthetics has no way of answering back.
america car castles
An Englishman's car is his castle on wheels.
christian country baby
If grownups want to dress in Tudor costume, douse babies in water, intone over the dead and do strange things with wine and wafers, it is a free country. But for a Christian sect to claim ownership of the legal definition of a human relationship is way out of order.
stars cat students
All students of disaster movies know that nothing survives these natural onslaughts except cats and the highest paid film stars.