October 26, 2008
Simon Jenkins was Editor of The Times in the early 1990s, and has been a columnist ever since, first for his old newspaper, and latterly both for The Guardian and The Sunday Times.
He's leaving to go to pastures new, and today is his last column for the ST. The whole thing can be read by clicking on what are his ultimate words, below. It's very, very good.
In all my years of writing this column, from which I am standing down, I have been amazed at the spinelessness of Britains elected representatives in defending liberty and protesting against state arrogance. They appear as parties to the conspiracy of power. There have been outspoken judges, outspoken peers, even outspoken journalists. There have been few outspoken MPs. Those supposedly defending freedom are whipped into obedience. I find this ominous.
My sandals feel far more comfortable when you're quoting Jenkins rather than Littlejohn...