Gove to deliver the Tory verdict on Brown

Huge excitement at Tory HQ over a speech which Michael Gove will deliver tomorrow on Gordon Brown’s politics. It is meant, I am told, to be seen both as the “definitive” take on Gordon-so-far and as a companion piece to David Cameron’s speech on immigration today – a measure of how (justly) high Gove’s stock is in the Cameroon circle. Apt, as well, that the most brilliant Scot of one generation should be selected to take on the most brilliant of another. The Shadow Schools Secretary was President of the Union when I was at Oxford and, though he has deliberately restrained the rhetorical fireworks as Shadow Schools Secretary – the key is to look like a Cabinet Minister in waiting – he is quite something as a debater when he lets loose. Number Ten will take this speech very seriously indeed. So they should.