British newspapers seem to be far more brutal in their treatment of columnists than US ones. If someone is fading or losing the readership, Fleet Street editors (who are no longer on Fleet Street) don’t hesitate to chop.

The New York Times, in contrast, clearly has lifetime tenure for those elevated to their regular op-ed rotation. I may be crediting those in charge with more discernment than they possess, but I can’t believe a rational person would have wanted the last five or so years of Bill Safire before his op-ed retirement this year. And, for all his fame, someone at the Times must be shaking their head when they read Tom Friedman.

There is a natural half life to almost all columnists that I’ll define at ten years. I can’t think of anyone who produced two columns a week for more than that period and made it truly worthwhile. Bloggers, dare I say it, probably face the same problem but no one pays most of us and just about none of us have made the decade mark in any case.

All of which is a lengthy prelude to my befuddlement at The Guardian’s hiring of Simon Jenkins as a columnist. Jenkins is one of those odd figures that litter the modern British establishment. He had considerable early achievement. He was editor of London’s Evening Standard in his 30s, then became political editor of The Economist when that meant more than it does today. He had a brief spell as editor of The Times, before becoming a twice-weekly columnist for that paper. He constantly pops up on committees of “the great and good”: BBC Charter Review, various lottery commissions, etc. Hasn’t he inflicted his opinions (most of which I can’t bear, I will confess) on the British public for long enough?