Michael Gove. Why him in particular ?

I’ve done the quiz on http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/are-you-hated-by-the-daily-mail and looked him up on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Gove

I don’t get it. What makes him so different to any other politician ?

he has a very slappable face;

He also appears to be trying to privatise the entire education system before the next election.

He is part man, part ferret, all a***hole.

Well , for starters ,it’s rumored that he may not be human

…and he writes a column in the Mail.

Even by the standards of the present cabinet, his twatishness goes off the scale. And thats quite some achievement when Grant Shapps is about!

All the rest of them are proper toffs, so all we can expect is for them to demonstrate the usual traits of born-to-rule, arrogant, chinless, in-bred ****-wits. But Pob isn’t. He’s a pleb who aspires to be one of them, so he’s a class traitor, with no excuses

even the pavement hates him;

He’s just…. The thing with him is…… He’s got….. The problem……. He really just……

It’s hard to explain.

It’s because he’s a ****.

he writes a column in the Mail

Ah, OK. I take it that’s the one serious reply that answers my question.

He also appears to be trying to privatise the entire education system before the next election.

this was a serious reply 🙁

I see he’s just come out in support of the Mail’s clobbering of the Ed Miller Band’s dad. Along with his ferocious attempts to destory the education system, it all rather marks him out as a bit of a ****.

It’s because he seems to revel in being as nasty and heartless as possible.

this was a serious reply

So was mine 🙁

What criteria do answers have to fit for them to count then? Every one so far seems perfectly valid to me. Especially about him just being a ****! Clear, concise and too the point! Was mine too expansive?

Be happy – at least he’s not your *&£%^”£$!^ ^$%” *”^%£%$$£ &”£%$£&”* ing MP! If I ever was in such dire circumstances that only intervention by my MP would help me, I think I’d choose to keep suffering rather than engage with the $^&£ *&^$*&$ &$*&^$ (&”&*&£^£%!

glupton1976 – Member
He is part man, part ferret, all a***hole.

^^ This!

Swear filter avoidance hard at work there, chaps!

🙂

Because he is as nasty as Eric Pickles and Gideon, with an even more slappable face.

Sorry, I didn’t mean to dismiss the other answers as less serious, it’s just that they didn’t seem to set him apart from so many other politicians.
So, he’s trying to privatise education. Is that so different to privatising BT, British Gas, British rail, the Post Office etc. ?

So, he’s trying to privatise education. Is that so different to privatising BT, British Gas, British rail, the Post Office etc. ?

*adds MTG to list of potential slappees*

Because it takes a very special person indeed to be the biggest @rsehole in a room that also contains CMD, Gideon and Jeremy *unt

He is a man who talks about academic rigour, without accepting that this should also apply to the things he proposes as well.

He talks about academic excellence, whilst simultaneously denigrating every single education academic in the country.

He is taking power away from local authorities over schools on the basis that politicians shouldn’t interfere with education, whilst making it that *only* his department can interfere with education, and boy does he love to interfere.

He is stripping the curriculum to the point that many essential skills for modern life (things like ICT) are pared back, and not part of the core set of subject’s trying to remove creative subjects almost completely, despite the fact that some of the most successful exports this country has are based in the creative industries (music, computers games, films etc.)

He thinks that there is only one way to teach reading and spelling – phonics – and anyone who suggests that this isn’t really the case for English and that a diverse array of techniques are required to teach reading and spelling in English is lambasted and called and enemy of promise.

He thinks it’s essential that 5 year olds are tested, ranked and rated.

That’s before we get to the privatisation, ghettoisation and general inequality fuelling academy and free school programmes, before we get to the boys own hero, 1950’s style remodelling with the curriculum and the absolute distain he has not only for teachers, but for parents.

His final act, it would seem, would be to sack *all* teachers, *all* head teachers, *all* parents and *all* pupils, and replace them with a more acceptable set of people.

Horrible person

I suspect it’s because he is one of those people in life who just cannot help but come across as a complete tool. Not sure he is really trying to privatise the education system. He does have a very valid concern and passion that the current education system is failing a large number of our young people. However, he is going about it in the wrong way and doesn’t appear to want to listen to those who might just have a better idea.

and tubby Pickles comes a close second……

Yeah, OK about all that education stuff, but don’t forget, he sent you all (schools) a bible each. And it only cost £370k. Can’t you at least be grateful for that?

Its a general trend for teachers to find teachers the secretary of state for education a bit of a drag

But really he takes the biscuit. He really has no clue about what the country might need from an education system or what might be a good way of achieving things.

His knowledge of what actually happens in school is breath takingly awful. He has made major announcements on the current gcse system and 3 days later changed what he said as he hadn’t known that gcses have higher and lower papers.

He seems to think that making the exams harder will make working class kids work harder. His A-level reforms are against the wishes of the universities but he says that we need to give the universities more say

Everything is based on his experiences and his views. He sees no room for expert knowledge

The face and voice are side issues. He is a terrible politician doing terrible things

I could go on but won’t

PS we are no talking about levels of spending. he just has no idea what needs doing or how to do it

PPS I don’t think he is privatising education. But he trying to use markets. This is moronic. Usually the state provides services in relation to need. This town will need X GPs a hospital this big, so that’s what we get. try to creat a market to work. We have schools built with PPI not full as Gove allowed a new school next door. The PPI school doesn’t cost less as its not full. Its just wrong

because I’m a teacher

Because they’re unable to attack his background!

The Lefties have spent so much time attacking the Tories for all being upper class millionaires born with silver spoons in their mouths, that when they’re presented with someone who has perfect left wing credentials but who not only dares to disagree with them, but does so by being clever and erudite and does not underestimate people by avoiding big words or complex explanations.

Of course their big problem is that they can’t attack his mandate either, in addition to schools he’s responsible for adoption and child care, and as an adoptee, they can’t say a word on the issue against him – so they’re stuck with ad-hom attacks based on his appearance!

PS:

As pointed out above, teachers hating education secretaries who expected them to do better is hardly a new thing, and worth recalling that the last one to receive the same extent of opprobrium from the teaching unions was Blunkett – who was notorious in his belief that the system could do better.

Because they’re unable to attack his background!

Que?

Robert Gordon’s College (Public School) followed by Oxford where he was president of the union?

This is hardly “perfect lefty credentials”

None the less, your pretence that it’s all bluster and ad hom, is nonsense – there are a wealth of criticisms in this very thread which are based on his poorly thought through and indefensible education diktats (to describe them as policies, would be giving them a coherences they so sadly lack).

Que?

From wiki:

Gove was born in Edinburgh; at four months old, he was adopted by a Labour-supporting family in Aberdeen, where he was brought up. His adoptive father ran a fish processing business; his adoptive mother was a lab assistant at the University of Aberdeen before working at the Aberdeen School for the Deaf.

Robert Gordon’s College (Public School)

In Aberdeen he was initially educated at a state school, later attending the independent Robert Gordon’s College, to which he had won a scholarship.

followed by Oxford where he was president of the union?

As were Tony Benn and Michael Foot! 😆

I listened to the irritating little twonk on the radio today and whilst I find plenty to dislike about him, he did not

come out in support of the Mail’s clobbering of the Ed Miller Band’s dad

His response was flat and he suggested he would also defend his father but also defended the right of the free press, even if they are as odious as the Mail.
Sorry if that upsets the angry mob, but if we are to hang him, let’s at least do so for something he has actually done. There should be no shortage of examples.

Fwiw I know not and care not about his parents or upbringing. My opinion is based solely on his actions as a politician. That opinion is that he’s a nobber of the highest order.

He does appear to make up ‘policies’ on a whim, according to what thought pops into his head. Ie: Today I’m going to abolish GCSE’s and bring back O Levels. Then when people who know infinitely more about the subject than him point out why this might not be either possible, or desirable, then he simply dismisses their opinions and advice. Only to be left U-turning and back-tracking when, after spanking loads of taxpayers money on his latest ill-conceived nonsense, it turns out they were right. Again!

There is no way you can describe a public school educated Oxford graduate as having perfect lefty credentials – Foot and Benn certainly don’t have “perfect lefty credentials”

But, none of those things actually matter to the argument – the fact that you continue to pursue them demonstrates how deeply hollow your position is.

Perhaps you could engage in the genuine criticism of his absurd and damaging dogma, rather than diverting it elsewhere.

I don’t dislike him any more than any of the other idiots we have in power. We have a climate change denier as SoS for the Environment, someone who believes in magic sugar pills in charge of the health service, and Theresa May (no further explanation needed).

Gove completely disregarding any kind of evidence based approach is hardly exceptional.

Bokonon, sure – why not read this and tell me which parts of the speech you disagree with:

http://www.thersa.org/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/213021/Gove-speech-to-RSA.pdf

I think its interesting to actually sit down and read what someone is on about, rather than just relying on newspaper headlines and union press releases!

If Milliband can be lambasted by the Mail for his father’s left wing views then what about Gove?
Wasn’t he also pictured on a picket line when he was a journalist involved in strike action as reported in the Daily Mail!

Perhaps I’ve underestimated him and he is in fact a Bolshevik sleeper working to destroy the establishment from the inside.

Bokonon, sure – why not read this and tell me which parts of the speech you disagree with:

Under Gordon Brown and Ed Balls, schools have lost their principal purpose

Didn’t have to read far to come up with some fatuous hyperbole. CBA reading any further.

His response was flat and he suggested he would also defend his father but also defended the right of the free press, even if they are as odious as the Mail.

No surprise, he has been quite consistent on this, he also defended the “freedom of the press his right wing paymasters” throughout the Stephenson enquiry, no matter what odious crimes they committed.

The reality is we onlyt have a free press in theory, in reality we have an owned press. Journalists are not free to print whatever they think, they are clearly constrained by the restrictions placed upon them by the editorial policy dictated through ownership.