Love the pic



If only he had ginger hair

[i"Ministers say it is backed by the Prince of Wales and Princess Anne".[/i

No, really ... who'd have thought that.

To "loosely word" a letter on such a topic in such times when your average Joe Bloggs on the street is being hounded from all directions in more and more ways to extract more of his money from his pay packet (remember 2 million this year are still on a higher tax code than they should be to repay an HMRC balls-up), is crass at the very least, incompetent is a word I'd prefer, fooking stupid is better and it beggers belief that people of this quality have reached a position that enables them to have control over other peoples lives in such a manner.

The suggestion originated from David Willetts, MP for Havant.

Step 1 : Agree to fund the £60mill from the public purse.
Step 2 : Give the contract to a Glasgow shipbuilder.
Step 3 : Allow Scotland to secede from the union.
Step 4 : Sit back and watch the nuclear fallout.

I don't believe for one moment it was "loosely worded", I reckon it was worded exactly as he meant it ... but not in the expectation of having to defend it to the public.

I suppose it really shows that the Tories are as out of touch to reality as anyone can be.

Not suprising Charlie and horse face are in agreement with it, other benefit claimants struggle to get bus fares to job interviews.

Meanwhile, one of Gove's other wheezes is looking a bit shaky.
He wants to send out copies of the King James bible to schools across the UK, complete with a foreword written by His Goveness himself.
David Chameleon has told him that it can't be paid for by the taxpayer (quite rightly, that's twice I've agreed with him in as many days!), so Head Boy Govey has to find donations to cover the cost.

The Dept of Ed are saying that despite having no takers so far, the project is not behind schedule.
The bibles have been ordered, apparently, and are sitting in some foreign warehouse.

On just how many levels can this bloke get something so wrong and so hubristic?

The idea there are going to be students staying on the ship, that it can be used for research and that this is compatible with its use a Royal Yacht and will pay for its upkeep is a joke. There is bound to be a cost to the public for its upkeep for things like security.

However despite the fact it would obviously cost the public money in the long term, the mere idea that such a ship should be built for the Queen is totally crass and just shows how really out of touch Gove, Willets and the rest of them are. Ostentatious gifts for the Queen whoever pays the initial cost are totally inappropriate at this point in time.

The fact the idea is supposed to be supported by Prince Charles and Princess Anne will do nothing but reinforce the Royal's are as out of touch with reality now as they were at the time of Diana's death. As a PR exercise for the Royals this will backfire. They must be mad to think going for this at this time is going to increase support for the Monarchy as an institution.

Ordered from Rupert Murdoch, the world's biggest [iBible[/i publisher?

When my dad wanted to buy an apartment in Spain I fully supported him.

I even flew out there to persuade him that he should live outside of Benidorm, maybe somewhere much further north.

It wasn't from any thought of what would suit him best, more the thought of what would suit me best after he fell off his perch.

Edited for accuracy

You do have to wonder how many schools don't already have at least one copy of a King James in their buildings – if only because of it's importance as a book and in terms of the development of the English language?

Although obviously none of those would have a special message in it from Mr Gove himself ...

Anyway, [url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16612080talking of royal boats[/url ...

Wow. Nothing says "narcissist" quite like that.

"Every school should have a copy of this holy text. And to make it extra sacred, you get the benefit of my musings as well. The words of God and Michael Gove - together at last."

It's better than dangling your Lansleys in the faces of the sick and dying.

ok,so i'm not exactly a royalist ('off with their heads' & 'Vive la Revolution' etc) but the Diamond Jubilee warrants something a bit special so if I were a uk taxpayer I wouldn't begrudge chipping in for such an important occasion...

well done Liz

By Gove, he's got it.



I sent Jove an email saying I'll be glad to chip in on one condition, that is I get to have a go in it one day a year.

He hasn't replied yet, which I find a bit off, frankly.

Don't let geography stop you.

Out of the current Cabinet I actually think Gove is the most pure "ideology" politician. I would say he was like Thatcher, in that you know where you stand with him, he doesn't try to hedge his bets or be all things to all people, he has his ideological views and he states them, and I think he is totally convinced that his right wing ideology is the best for the poor as well as the rich.

In education I like the fact that he is big on a core curriculum of sciences, maths, languages and history, and is wanting to try and enforce that the schools in less well off areas make their kids do that core curriculum rather than being given 'soft options'. He is quite into comparative evidence from other education systems and in the better performing ones in Scandinavia and other parts of Europe, the kids in the less well off areas are being made to do the same traditional academic subjects as the ones in the posh schools rather than being shunted off into low value 'vocational' courses that aren't valued in those vocations. I know some people say "academics aren't for everyone" and so on but the social mobility is better for kids from lower income backgrounds that have done traditional subjects.

However I would be worried if Gove became Foreign Secretary. His foreign affairs ideology appears to be aligned with neo-con US republicans, he's from the school that Western market capitalism liberal democracy is the best ideology for the world and it should be spread, and Islam is a threat and we need to do more to counter Islam.

that's ok - our lad is working in the uk and so will be contributing to the Jubilee fund ......

whether he likes it or not !

He certainly shares the asset of not being troubled by doubt.
I'm wary of people who don't doubt.


The "better performing ones" in Sweden are not as "better performing" as he once thought.
In fact a licence for one of them is up for sale on the Swedish version of eBay.


He has no doubt he's right.

Maybe "Gove" shouldn't be pronounced gove but gee-oh-vah

His model is based on the Free Schools idea in Sweden. This is a system that has resulted in 2011 Swedish students dropping to 19th place out of 57 countries for literacy, to 24th in maths, and to 28th in science. This compared with 9th, 17th and 16th in studies done in 2000, 2003 and 2006 respectively.

There is also blatant segregation occurring in Sweden where the best schools with the best teachers are over subscribed and the poorer schools pick up the pieces. The idea you put forward that because he wants all kids to study core subjects in all schools that this will deliver social mobility is incredibly naive as Sweden shows.

If he is into evidence then he would drop the idea immediately. He won't because he is as idealogical driven on this as anything else and the ideology is essentially a kind privatisation of schools where the state has little control, the schools are run by private companies or organisations such as the C of E but they still get tax payers funds.



You should be be worried about having him where he is. He will wreck education just as much as Lansey will wreck the NHS. These are IMO the two most important departments in government and we have extreme right wing nutters in charge of both. Gove may well cherry pick his "evidence" to try an come across as some sort of thoughtful education secretary but he is on as much of a neo-con mission in education as he would be in the FCO.