A far-left teacher criticizes Michael Gove's reforms....

[LeftishBrit]

http://standpointmag.co.uk/node/5374


Yes, you could have knocked me down with a good old-fashioned feather pen, too!

Gove does not exactly seem to be winning hearts and minds.

[non sociopath skin]

1. Of course, a more cynical man than me ....

... might suspect that La Burble might be positioning herself and her insecure Free School for a non-Tory future.

The Skin

[LeftishBrit]

2. The same thought had occurred to me...

but that at any rate means that a non-Tory future (or at least a non-Govean future) is thought to be a serious possibility!

[T_i_B]

3. Michael Gove's history lesson

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/politics/politics-headlines/michael-goves-history-lesson-2014010782312

GOOD morning class. I’m Michael Gove: education secretary, next prime minister and the man who puts the Gove in government. Some people – lefties, historians, a 25-year-old sitcom I’ve only just heard of – have been getting history wrong. Here’s what actually happened.

World War One: The lie that our troops were “lions led by donkeys” must be overturned. In truth, the lions were the visionary members of the officer class who invented the revolutionary tactic of swamping the enemy’s machine guns with donkey bodies.

The Revolutionary War: Historians claim that Britain and America fought each other in this war, but that could never have happened because we’re both the goodies. Clearly some kind of administrative mistake.

World War Two: Evidence that the Soviet Union defeated the Nazis on the Eastern Front is obviously false, because they were Communists and only a nation built on free-market principles with privatised utilities could be successful.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. What's worrying is that there are people who have suggested him as the next Tory leader

It's almost as alarming as the thought of Nigel Farage leading the country.

[LeftishBrit]

5. Scary

Last edited Thu Jan 9, 2014, 09:47 AM - Edit history (1)

Though that could have the advantage of putting the voters off the Tories (but never underestimate the possibility of brain farts in voters!)

Gove is in my opinion the worst Education Secretary since Sir Keith Joseph; it would be hard to be worse than Sir Keith! Gove combines Kenneth Baker's arrogance, John Patten's personal nastiness, David Blunkett's authoritarianism and Ruth Kelly's incompetence; and adds a few little lunacies of his own.

[T_i_B]

6. Because he was a newspaper columnist before entering the commons.....

.....he gets treated as the best thing since sliced bread by a large section of the UK media. That seems to be the big selling point for Gove as a potential leadership candidate, in spite of his actual record as a politician.

[LeftishBrit]

7. And his wife Sarah Vine is a journalist, and doubtless has influence in some places!

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. Goveadder Goes Forth:

...
Baldrick Oh yes, sir! Anyway, I have a cunning plan to avoid dying in this war.

Goveadder Oh dear, Baldrick, why would you want that? What an unhappy compulsion you have to denigrate patriotism, honour and courage. I sense you're a Labour voter.

Baldrick The franchise has yet to be extended to the likes of me, sir.

Goveadder I didn't know you were a woman!

Baldrick I'm not, sir. Many working-class men still don't have the vote, which is why this war is such a splendid and rare opportunity, not yet afforded in the ballot box, for us lot to root for the western liberal order.
...
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/12/michael-gove-blackadder-first-world-war-david-mitchell