Gove on the rack -- but who put him there?

truthtriumphs

Michael Gove remains one of the most talented, decent and honourable ministers, in sharp contrast to his thugish predecessor.
This furore was obviously engineered by some disgracefully politicised civil servants with Labour sympathies, determined to bring Gove down.
He should remain resolute, and not go overboard with his apologies.

Ian Hills

Can't ministers just sack mandarins, going down through the hierarchy until they get to some obedient layer? Or are senior civil servants unsackable? Maybe they could be transferred to Port Stanley in that case.

Ruby Duck

Evidently someone, not Gove, was responsible for the errors.

Probably time to abolish state education altogether. Nobody will die. Those that care about education will fairly rapidly find alternative provision, and those that don't care will be no worse off.

GeoffM

Having had a run in with such people myself, but in the area of International Aid, I can assure you that Gove will need to not only watch his back but marshal a small army of his own to counter them.

The Government will have to start at the top. A fish always rots from its head.

The most senior Civil Servants will have to be put on notice that their jobs are on the line if THEY do not ensure that all internal opposition is quashed. Many will have to lose their jobs and Quangos must go, otherwise this Government will be run into the sand before the next election.

We have already seen that it is not just education. The FO, with its support/admiration for Islamists and the grotesque insults issued towards the Pope and Catholics by the very team tasked with organising the Papal visit will need flushing out.

The Spooks will have to check out all people in important positions for Socialist/Marxist/Islamist backgrounds and get rid.

We can no longer tolerate, as we did during the Thatcher years, a Fifth Column within the Civil Service and the Educational establishment frustrating not just the elected Government but also the democratically expressed wishes of the British electorate.

Robin

GeoffM

Spot on.

Jonathan Levy

Sounds like an episode from 'Yes Minister'.

citizen99

It could be argued that Michael Gove, if he was indeed warned about inaccuracies, took a brave and ultimately fruitful decision that, at the cost of a refreshingly principled apology to Parliament, has 'flushed out' the issue and put him in a stronger position to reform his department. What a contrast with previous ministerial performances over recent decades !

anne allan

Why does the State provide education? All it does is give the government a ready made propaganda machine?
The Foster Act of 1870 had little impact on literacy; people had already recognised the advantages to their children of literacy and numeracy. Those who didn't were probably in the same proportion as those parents nowadays who allow their children to abscond, either physically by truancy or mentally by disrupting the class and ruining education for those who wish to learn.

phil

GeoffM
July 12th, 2010 6:48am -Well said-- Michael Gove is one of the politicians that give me hope that there is a future for our parliament ,a man of honour and by hell we need them .

blue_&_white_avenger

GeoffM - well said. Ian - agreed - but whoa there, in a free society breathing equality, you can't offload this lot anywhere; why should the Falklands suffer !?

Ian C

Good analysis of the likely reality.

This 'phase' of the fightback against the 'bureaucratic age' was always going to be one of a major challenge of the public sector vested interests. Thatcher took them down in nationalised industry but that and the wider economy took so long that education, which was a front that (with the benefit of hindsight at least) she could have opened up at the same time but dared not, was beyond her reach.

If this gov't does not see the fight with the educational establishment in terms of a must win war, then it will mean the demise of the UK as a leading wealthy economy by mid-century if not before.

Ian C

citizen99
July 12th, 2010 8:49am

Interesting possible angle. Hope you are right and that Gove is as smart as this would make him look to the Dep't.

Frank P

GeoffM

"The Spooks will have to check out all people in important positions for Socialist/Marxist/Islamist backgrounds and get rid."

And who, pray, is going to check out the spooks?

Baron

GeoffM @ 6.48 gets it. The officials ain’t incompetent at all. They know very well what they are doing. The whole of the educational bureaucracy and the hangers-on in the myriad of quangoes will stop at nothing to kill the Gove’s project, or at least to make it so messed up that parents will get cheesed off with it.

It pains to say it again. The whole project of Gove’s, right, wrong, radical or whatever, will come to little, the vested interests will see to it. The pseudo-liberal loonies will never give up voluntarily, the indoctrination of young minds ranks the highest amongst the domains they need to keep on brainwashing the society.

The Tories should have abolished the LEAs, replaced most of the educational set-up, disarmed the unions and stuff, and only then had a go.

Humbug Hater

Glad you exposed this. Well said.

Paul Freeman

A Polish friend of mine lives and works in London. His wife lives in Poland where their son goes to school.

They tell me they live apart like this because our state schools are so dreadful and they don't want their son's education ruined by one.

I have Romanian friends who tell the same story.

Our state education system is a national disgrace.

Gary Wintle

Gove should have checked the lists, or is he so incompetent and lazy he does not check things himself?
In real jobs, people check things, only politicians like Gove, with no experience of real life, would release info without checking it.
What a dunce!
And what a bunch of ninnies you lot are making up wacky conspiracies to excuse our overpaid, drunk, expenses swindling MPs.

GeoffM

Gary Wintle
July 13th, 2010 4:47am
"Gove should have checked the lists, or is he so incompetent and lazy he does not check things himself?"

Come off it.

He is a Minister of the Crown. His job is policy and politics - not office manager or quality controller.

The reason we have a Civil Service is that they not only do the work but also are tasked with ensuring that information provided is correct. NOTHING handed to a minister should be wrong/inaccurate.

That the Civil Service can hand out such inaccurate rubbish tells us a lot about what is going on. I suspect he was set up.

Gove can't go around the country auditing all the mass of information that comes across his desk - that is the duty of senior Civil Servants.

This will rebound badly upon them. If my Civil Servants had stitched me up like that I would be handing out P45's. Gove should at least name and shame the mandarins responsible - "pour encourager les autres".

As for who will check out the Spooks, Frank P, you are right to be suspicious.

I am afraid our entire Establishment has been compromised.

Louis Berk

Like every Education Minister over the past 20 years or more, I give him about 18 months.

Gary Wintle

Civil Servants exist because politicians are lazy scroungers.
Most of us can put together lists and such on a spreadsheet.
MPs should do this themselves and be paid the minimum wage (that way corruption is snuffed out as the money grabbers won't enter parliament).
The amount of civil servants and "assistants" ministers have is disgusting, and are a reflection of how lazy and workshy our politicians are.
Do politicians do any work or do they just prance around making poncy speeches?

GeoffM

Gary Wintle @ July 16th, 2010 4:09am

You are either quite insane or have never had a proper job in your life.

So you want Mr Gove to work for £5ish/hour and trawl around the country compiling lists on a spreadsheet for each of our thousands of schools, the Local Authorities and contractors?

He will interview each Headmaster, attend Governors meetings, assess all plans and building contracts?

You want him to do this in what timescale? To what end?

Grow up and join the real world.

If you hadn't realised, this is a nation of over 60,000,000 people - not your office cubicle ......or your bedroom.