Michael Gove is an absolute master of his Education brief, his media performances over the riots this morning were very good indeed and I have just caught up with his absolute mauling of Labour's Harriet Harman here:
If you have a spare tenner, a flutter on Mr Gove might not be a bad idea. A few years transforming our education system, Gove would make an excellent Home Secretary and then who knows - the next Leader of the Conservative Party?
4 comments:
I have one word of advice for David. If you want to be seen to be all in this together perhaps you should have taken your holiday in the UK instead of a £10,000 holiday to Tuscany. It makes you appear out of touch with the public and against the dictum of "we are all in this together".
Hi GOM; I think DC has had a holiday in the UK (Cornwall) and has a better record than, say, Mr Blair. BUT I agree with you that he would do well to be supporting the UK tourist industry.
I agree with you that past prime ministers have also taken holiday's abroad and can recall that Tony Blair felt it his right to jet off abroad.
I think Grumpy Old Man has one point though, is that if you say we are all in this together but appear to be on holiday abroad on a very expensive holiday (while in public office) the public may look upon it negatively. I couldn't care less what private individuals get up to if they are not in public office because it's their choice (and also not our tax payers money usually). If Cameron wants to go on holiday I am sure there are lots of great locations in the UK to go to. Scotland for one is one of my favourite destinations.
In regards to the topic at hand I think that Gove and Harman are articulating their ideological differences in their reaction to the riots. Before anyone says I am stating the obvious it is a known fact that those towards the left or left-of-centre do see economic conditions having an impact on social relations. Look at the whole 'New Deal for Communities' project as an articultion of that thought. One Nation Conservatives do to a point, but thats more to do with an organic society and social bonds. Gove, Cameron and others tend to not necessarily see a connection between economic conditions and social relations. Social problems like riots are not necessarily driven by economic conditions in their view. If this is the case, why were there not riots in Notting Hill or other affluent locations?
If the government does not recognize that people are going through hard times and appearing indifferent to people's circumstances by going on expensive holidays they run the risk of being out of touch. We are still going through a sluggish recovery, and even though Cameron cannot help his 'privileged' background status, he can exercise it responsibly in the eyes of the public.
Gove cannot make the simple distinction between justification (saying something has value or a particular meaning) and explanation (the social, cultural and economic factors that shape people's self-perception and consequentially their behaviour). I find this intellectually lazy and populist.
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