Labour peer challenges Gove to a fight

In an effort to defend his belief that socialists can be patriotic, Labour peer and former head of the Royal Navy, Admiral Lord West of Spithead, has said he would be willing to physically fight Education Secretary, Michael Gove, over the matter.

Responding to comments that Gove made at the start of the year, when he referenced Blackadder as a supposed example of the “existing left-wing version of the past designed to belittle Britain and its leaders”, Lord West has argued that Gove has got it wrong.

In a Lords debate on commemorations of the centenary of the First World War, Lord West began by explaining that he and the Gove did agree on one thing, namely that “our decision to go to war over Belgium was absolutely right” and that WWI could be classified as a “just war” because “Europe would have been a worse place if Germany had won.” 

However, he went one to explain where he differed from the Secretary of State for Education, outlining what he was willing to do to defend his point of view:

“I think he [Michael Gove] has been reported wrongly, because I have read that he has said that socialists are unpatriotic. I’m sure he didn’t mean that. If he did mean that, I’m willing to discuss it with him inside or outside a boxing ring and we’ll see how we go.”

Whether Gove will take him up on the offer remains to be seen…