Gove is indeed nuts...
That isn’t a reference to a greasy takeaway order, although someone may well have to make sure Michael Gove is taken away from his new office fairly soon.
Michael Gove’s schools gaffe last week has not gone away just yet, if anything the intensity surround the Building Schools for the Future programme seems to be snowballing. He is experiencing attacks from all sides in Parliament. Deputy Lib Dem leader Simon Hughes is the latest critic of his policies, and you can add that name to a growing list of Tory backbenchers. This is the first real policy issue to have split the coalition government.
The fact this seems not to be going away and indeed appears to be gaining momentum means it makes the second resignation from the LibCon cabinet a real possibility. How much longer can he hang on for?
Gove attempted to parry the blows dealt to him in Parliament yesterday. If he intended to avoid the questions asked by Ed Balls and look daft, Gove did a sterling job. One suspects he wasn’t, and he thus he didn’t. To fall back on blaming the ‘mess’ left by the last government is simply not good enough Mr Gove. Blaming that on the fact you cannot publish a simple list correctly surely adds to his ineptitude. Initially taking responsibility earned him some credit in the immediate aftermath of this gaffe, so it makes perfect sense for him to reverse that. He is now lowering himself to blaming his incompetence on the ‘incompetence’ of his predecessor, a sure sign of desperation.
This is the first example of how robust the coalition can be, or alternatively an example of infighting that if becomes a regular feature regarding policy issues could quite easily be the beginning of a long, winding and very bumpy road. It is yet to be known how good the mechanic is who works on the coalition motor. Time will tell.
