The right are working themselves up into a lather this morning over Michael Gove’s Op-Ed in the Telegraph. They seem delighted that the Education Secretary has attacked Ed Miliband as a”blancmange in a hurricane”, which – if this is an example of Gove’s journalism – explains why he decided politics would be a better bet than wordsmithery.
Yet it’s difficult not to be tempted to respond in kind:
- Michael Gove is like a deflated whoopee cushion skittering across a frozen pond
- Michael Gove is like a bag of chopsticks in a suit
But such personal attacks would be crass and sinking to his level, so you’d never find me saying anything like that. No siree. Instead, I’d like to focus on Gove’s total and utter lack of class, not just for the sub-Boris personal attack, but for the hilariously two-faced and hypocritical content published around it. Lets take a look at a few of Gove’s claims shall we?
“In the past 10 days the Prime Minister has been busy”
Whilst I’m not someone who thinks that the Prime Minister should be ritually flogged for wanting a holiday – he probably needs one – it’s a little rich, in light of the brouhaha around Cameron’s Ibiza trip, to claim that Cameron has had his busiest week as PM. Whilst Gove is right to say that Cameron responded “with maturity, proportion and resolution to the jihadist atrocity in Woolwich”, so – if we’re being fair – did Ed Miliband. Amongst the claims that Gove makes his Cameron’s busy period is..
[Cameron has] “ensured gay men and women at last enjoy full equality before the law”
Whoah there Michael. Now I yield to no-one in my admiration of Cameron for driving through a policy that a huge proportion of the Tory party hates because he felt it was the right thing to do. But where on earth do you get the gall to try and use the vote on Equal Marriage to attack the Labour Party? If the Labour Party hadn’t voted for it, it wouldn’t have happened, because your party is hopelessly divided between supporters of equality and, to be frank, archaic bigots.
“Over the same period, as far as I can see, Ed Miliband managed to attend Google’s Big Tent conference”
Now you’ve got us here, haven’t you – because Ed Miliband did attend the Google Big Tent conference and he has been rather quiet over the past week. But are you suggesting, Michael Gove, that in the aftermath of a major terrorist incident on the streets of London, the leader of the Opposition should be focussed on attacking the Prime Minister and his government? That wouldn’t be very statesmanlike would it?
“it’s hard to think of any opposition since the middle of the 18th century that has had so little positive to put forward”
No-one has been clearer than I about Labour’s lack of a clear, convincing, doorstep-ready policy offer, but what exactly were the Conservative Party offering at this stage of opposition? What happened to your Marriage Tax Allowance and Inheritance Tax cut? Or your promise of “no more top down reorganisation of the NHS”? Were they positive? And what happened to them? Jog on…
Gove then goes on a little diatribe about what his government have done – several of the “achievements” can be rebutted quite quickly:
- reduced the deficit – it’s rising
- made the tax system more competitive – AKA tax cut for millionaires
- reformed the welfare state – contributing to Britain’s national shame, and making people homeless
- cut net migration – by removing overseas students, who contribute to our economy/education system
- reduced crime – no thanks to you, who cut police by 20%
- made the NHS more efficient and compassionate – AKA the top down reorganisation and attempted privatisation of the NHS, and the A&E crisis
- secured progress on the EU budget – which happened because you lost a vote against Labour and your backbenchers
- freed millions from dictatorship – in Libya, which was backed by Labour and hasn’t been an unqualified success
- created a million new private sector jobs – a large chunk of which are just recategorising many jobs
Not exactly the proud record Michael is claiming it is…
“Labour hates being reminded that it has been consistently on the wrong side of history. Just last month, Miliband presented himself as a disciple of Margaret Thatcher, saying proudly, “She also believed that ideology mattered… nobody can grasp Margaret Thatcher’s achievements, and Thatcherism, without also appreciating the ideas that were its foundation.” But there is nothing strong in denying your own past and trying to appropriate someone else’s.”
Ok – lets ignore that the Conservative Party have been on the wrong side of history for most progressive change since the advent of party politics. That almost goes without saying, and required remarkable chutzpah from Gove to even commit those words to paper. It’s pretty sickening and totally without class for Gove to try and use Ed Miliband’s thoughtful and well received statement on Margaret Thatcher – given just days after her death – as a weapon in the tit-for-tat of daily political warfare. Perhaps Gove is suggesting that Miliband should have used that statement as an opportunity to lambast the ills of Thatcher and her government? I’m guessing not – yet that doesn’t stop Gove shroud waving for desperate political gain.
The final section of Gove’s piece, in which he attempts to drive a wedge between Blue and “Brown” Labour, is perhaps the most compelling part of an otherwise fairly terrible rant. Yet as I’ve argued before, there is a very clear path that Blue and Brown Labour can take that would give both what they want, and provide a strong and stable platform for the party going into 2015. It remains to be seen what platform could be established that would unite Gove’s hopelessly fractured party, as it lists from one row to another rumoured coup.
In fact, if we’re honest, this is the opening salvo of Michael Gove’s leadership bid, isn’t it..?
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