This is a brilliant piece, one of your very best, and absolutely nails Gove.
For me, the best encapsulation of his malign influence on public life is this interview during the 2019 election campaign. He is asked about the 40 hospitals pledge and replies, in the courteous terms you mention, by reinterpreting completely valid journalism as biased political campaigning. Trumpian post-truth cynicism with a Latinate vocabulary.
Thank you, Ian - you’ve put into excellent words what I have long felt about Gove. He was dangerously clever, and the British political scene will be better off in his absence.
And it's the dangerously clever ones that really make my blood boil. So many recent Tories have ended up way out of their depth in jobs that they never should have been given that I can't find it in me to really hate them despite the damage they've done. It's the likes of Gove and Cummings who enabled them and were smart enough to know exactly what were they doing who are the real villains.
That's how he came across to me too. You couldn't see the cogs turning. But you were aware they were doing so every time he redefined himself. He was particularly polite and obliging to the Downing Street press and photographers too. Which ensured him lots of decent publicity.
We aren't very good at handling smart, manipulative, devious and polite in one package. The "polite" part throws us off the scent.
"I'm asking the British public to take back control of our destiny from those organisations which are distant, unaccountable, elitist and don't have their own interests at heart."
Sounds like he’s describing the Conservative Party.
I don’t remember his “interview” with Trump but I do remember listening to a speech he gave to the NFU in early 2017 in which he sounded superficially reasonable, warning about the dangers of a no deal exit from the EU especially for agriculture. Until of course you realised that he was addressing the wrong audience. The NFU could do nothing to prevent the disaster he was predicting, for which he neatly managed to shift the blame to his audience. Quite what his purpose was was unclear but it was a stunning example of his capacity for intellectual dishonesty.
Yes, a great example of how he has helped to demean our public life and demolish the checks and balances which are supposed to prevent the executive from going rogue.
I had my money on him being the first prominent leaver to admit brexit at least partially needed to be reversed. More to do with him being savvy enough to see the inevitable and turn it to his advantage,than any ideological conversion. It could still happen, but probably only if Murdoch allows him to in the Times.
We have enough fools in parliament to deal with, without the follow-along dead heads and failures in an anti-democratic EU. And it will be reversed over the dead bodies of half this nation, mine included. Getting funds from the EU were you? That’s what split the vote and switched off remainers brains.
‘Half the nation’ 🤣🤣. Only 25% of the UK population voted for Brexit. Many of them were older voters and considering 600k people die in the UK every year, that’s nearly 5M UK citizens that have passed since 2016 vote to be replaced by younger, more EU friendly voters. Combined with polls trending only in one direction against Brexit, I think you will find the % of the UK nation who will oppose any Brexit reversal is quite small. Unless you literally meant dead bodies 🤔 and even then, half is still nonsense.
I'm no supporter of Farage, but why should I have to say so? Smearing by association isn't impressive, and it's not an argument for rejoining an even less democratic bunch of follow-alongs and failures than the ones we already have in parliament. They're all made of the same stuff, ticky tacky. And for the record, Farage is no different, and certainly no better.
He reminds me too of Rees-Mogg, though more intelligent. This veneer of respectability, the posh drawl, the Latin, but underneath a vicious shit who turns out not to be good at Latin. I hope this one sticks around until Jul 4 to be beaten in the GE.
Well worth a read. A complex character who was a polished performer in front of the camera. Interesting to hear your views on his effectiveness in making a difference in specific policy areas. Begrudging admiration from me considering his devastating impact on Brexit and the wider damage this Tory Govt. have inflicted on our nation.
When he was Education Secretary a hundred education academics signed a joint letter ripping apart his ‘reform’ proposals. His response was to set civil servants to investigate their backgrounds. Three had been in left-wing parties in their youth. He then extruded an article in the Daily Mail declaring himself the victim of a Marxist witch-hunt. The man is a louse. He may be, some of the time, less of a louse than Lee Anderson; but let’s not kid ourselves.
A brilliant analysis of a most malign character 👏🏼
This is a brilliant piece, one of your very best, and absolutely nails Gove.
For me, the best encapsulation of his malign influence on public life is this interview during the 2019 election campaign. He is asked about the 40 hospitals pledge and replies, in the courteous terms you mention, by reinterpreting completely valid journalism as biased political campaigning. Trumpian post-truth cynicism with a Latinate vocabulary.
https://x.com/C4Ciaran/status/1197500442504286208
Yes I remember this moment well. I actually included it in a first draft of this newsletter, but it dragged the whole a bit.
Thank you, Ian - you’ve put into excellent words what I have long felt about Gove. He was dangerously clever, and the British political scene will be better off in his absence.
Dangerously clever is a very good summary.
And it's the dangerously clever ones that really make my blood boil. So many recent Tories have ended up way out of their depth in jobs that they never should have been given that I can't find it in me to really hate them despite the damage they've done. It's the likes of Gove and Cummings who enabled them and were smart enough to know exactly what were they doing who are the real villains.
That's how he came across to me too. You couldn't see the cogs turning. But you were aware they were doing so every time he redefined himself. He was particularly polite and obliging to the Downing Street press and photographers too. Which ensured him lots of decent publicity.
We aren't very good at handling smart, manipulative, devious and polite in one package. The "polite" part throws us off the scent.
Brilliant. Encapsulates the slimy Gove perfectly. He could have been so much more, had it not been for the moral floor.
"I'm asking the British public to take back control of our destiny from those organisations which are distant, unaccountable, elitist and don't have their own interests at heart."
Sounds like he’s describing the Conservative Party.
I don’t remember his “interview” with Trump but I do remember listening to a speech he gave to the NFU in early 2017 in which he sounded superficially reasonable, warning about the dangers of a no deal exit from the EU especially for agriculture. Until of course you realised that he was addressing the wrong audience. The NFU could do nothing to prevent the disaster he was predicting, for which he neatly managed to shift the blame to his audience. Quite what his purpose was was unclear but it was a stunning example of his capacity for intellectual dishonesty.
Arch weasel as I prefer to think of him.
He emasculated the electoral commission too
Yes, a great example of how he has helped to demean our public life and demolish the checks and balances which are supposed to prevent the executive from going rogue.
Wormtongue suits him well, thanks to Tolkien.
I had my money on him being the first prominent leaver to admit brexit at least partially needed to be reversed. More to do with him being savvy enough to see the inevitable and turn it to his advantage,than any ideological conversion. It could still happen, but probably only if Murdoch allows him to in the Times.
We have enough fools in parliament to deal with, without the follow-along dead heads and failures in an anti-democratic EU. And it will be reversed over the dead bodies of half this nation, mine included. Getting funds from the EU were you? That’s what split the vote and switched off remainers brains.
‘Half the nation’ 🤣🤣. Only 25% of the UK population voted for Brexit. Many of them were older voters and considering 600k people die in the UK every year, that’s nearly 5M UK citizens that have passed since 2016 vote to be replaced by younger, more EU friendly voters. Combined with polls trending only in one direction against Brexit, I think you will find the % of the UK nation who will oppose any Brexit reversal is quite small. Unless you literally meant dead bodies 🤔 and even then, half is still nonsense.
A piece of " foam-flecked Faragism " in honour of Michael.
I'm no supporter of Farage, but why should I have to say so? Smearing by association isn't impressive, and it's not an argument for rejoining an even less democratic bunch of follow-alongs and failures than the ones we already have in parliament. They're all made of the same stuff, ticky tacky. And for the record, Farage is no different, and certainly no better.
The man with a silver, forked tongue from which snake oil drips.
He reminds me too of Rees-Mogg, though more intelligent. This veneer of respectability, the posh drawl, the Latin, but underneath a vicious shit who turns out not to be good at Latin. I hope this one sticks around until Jul 4 to be beaten in the GE.
He's just announced his leaving.
A very Govian Character assessment thank you.
Well worth a read. A complex character who was a polished performer in front of the camera. Interesting to hear your views on his effectiveness in making a difference in specific policy areas. Begrudging admiration from me considering his devastating impact on Brexit and the wider damage this Tory Govt. have inflicted on our nation.
When he was Education Secretary a hundred education academics signed a joint letter ripping apart his ‘reform’ proposals. His response was to set civil servants to investigate their backgrounds. Three had been in left-wing parties in their youth. He then extruded an article in the Daily Mail declaring himself the victim of a Marxist witch-hunt. The man is a louse. He may be, some of the time, less of a louse than Lee Anderson; but let’s not kid ourselves.
A great article. Burke on the outside and Lenin on the inside is not wrong. Maybe another comparison would be - a poor man's Trotsky.
His interview with Trump was notable in its obsequiousness as much for the fact that his boss was in the room.
He’s Murdoch’s man, always has been - wouldn’t bet against him securing a cushy number with the Times/ST.
That Gove-Johnson pic - seated in the back seat of a campaign van, looking shifty - was a Van Eyck character study.