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Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

...to be absolutely disgusted by Michael Gove's comments?

154 replies

MaryMcCarthy · 13/09/2021 17:56

I suppose we all knew what Thatcherism and the modern Conservatives were about, but to hear it spoken out loud, with such disdain, just makes me so angry. Whether he said it last week or last century I'm just boiling with rage at how such callous sociopaths can rise to such high positions of power. I dare say we need a revolution in this country.

OP posts:
Claudethecat · 13/09/2021 19:46

@jewel1968

Do you really think someone that expressed views like that in 1993 are likely to have changed? People don't change that much.

Those views were odious then as now. All that has happened is people are a little more careful about what they say out loud now.

I agree.
supermoonrising · 13/09/2021 19:47

To be honest it just sounds like typical “young Tory boy trying to be risqué and hilarious” unfunny nonsense.

It’s more pathetic than offensive. The problem isn’t what he said specifically, the problem is why do these sorts of people attain power in our country. These people with the empathy of a snake and the worldview of a spoilt toddler. They do seem to gather in the Conservative Party.

TheHouseILiveIn · 13/09/2021 19:57

The speech also included Mr Gove’s opinions on Margaret Thatcher’s policies, which he described as “rigorously, vigorously, virulently, virilely, heterosexual”.

He continued: “We are at last experiencing a new empire: an empire where the happy south stamps over the cruel, dirty, toothless face of the northerner.

"At last Mrs Thatcher is saying I don’t give a fig for what half of the population say because the richer half will keep me in power. This may be amoral, this may be immoral, but it’s politics and it’s pragmatism.”

Mr Gove imagined, that there was “no sound sweeter” than a young boy’s voice breaking, apart from the sound of that same boy involved in a sex act

He said that the current justice minister Lucy Frazer, who had invited him to speak, was “actually capable of tempting me into bed with her” and implied one college’s entire rugby club had had group sex with her.

He then referred to her “preference for peach-flavoured condoms,” and said she had done “remarkably well” to come from “the back streets of the slums of Leeds”.

supermoonrising · 13/09/2021 19:59

There’s a lot of right wing thought that I agree with (and some bits I don’t). But I never even consider voting Conservative as it’s packed full of people like Michael Gove. There are a few decent MPs in the Party, and occasionally a half decent human being like John Major/Hague even rises to the top, but they’re generally massively outnumbered by people with the worldview of people like Gove, Johnson, Patel, Cameron etc. It’s not even Conservative anymore in any sense of the word anyway, it’s just a vehicle to smash anything that stands in the way of the richest 1% increasing their size of the pie. It’s just the Republican Party without old-fashioned family values, guns or religion.

MultiStorey · 13/09/2021 19:59

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

FlumpsAreShit · 13/09/2021 20:00

Agog at those excusing it because it was 30 years ago. So finding child abuse funny was normal in the 90s? Calling people f w*s was okay? Saying the south should stamp over the toothless north was just a sign of the times?

I was only a child in the 90s so I'll have to take your word for it, but Hmm

DearFatties · 13/09/2021 20:01

How is anyone surprised?! Boris has published racist, sexist, classist views and Britain still voted for him. His entire cabinet is jam-packed with idiots, Gove (did anyone see the nightclub videos btw?), Rees-Mogg.

Come on, this isn’t a shock at all. It’s standard Tory stuff.

lljkk · 13/09/2021 20:03

I think it's a mistake to get het up about specific words.
I don't sense racism-sexism as the underlying sentiments.
He was trying to be provocative & funny.

What actually bothers me is the crude mindset, that he thought he was offering insight or fresh perspectives in using these words.

He comes across as self-important and gross, but I guess we knew all that.

Has MG at least apologised for his crude language and poor humour then?

mustlovegin · 13/09/2021 20:03

Thanks for bringing it up, OP ..I had not heard it

The 'thank you OP's will start to pop up now Hmm

DearFatties · 13/09/2021 20:04

Still bewildered how Boris and his group of clowns have out loud said all this stuff yet they run the country, and some people simply accuse Old Corbyn of being anti-Semitic and it sticks and he’s ousted.

Why was the tire nation happy to rid the Labour Party of him on accusations, yet voted in these nasty, selfish pieces of work? Is our bar really so low? We should be saying no to all these people and demanding decent politicians for crying out loud. I don’t care which party, just let’s have some decent individuals for once.

Where are they?! Urgh, rant over.

mustlovegin · 13/09/2021 20:05

It was 30 years ago. OP you should calm down - there are professional muck stirrers out there (not to mention the professionally and perpetually offended)

Who do you support that you seem to find so holy?

Chocolatier9 · 13/09/2021 20:06

I wish I was shocked and offended.

But really… meh. It’s Michael Gove, thirty years ago. Did anyone think he spent that time protesting the awfulness of injustice and bigotry.

As usual, all I can muster is slight awe that someone who sees that face in the mirror every day can be so utterly, unquenchably convinced they’re born to rule.

GoldenOmber · 13/09/2021 20:33

He’s such a repellent specimen of humanity.

SunIsBehindGreySky · 13/09/2021 20:37

If what he says is true about his personal life, it matches some things I heard, I assume that's why these recordings have now - come out! I hope Sarah Vine (I don't agree with her in much apart from Hancock and biological reality) should appreciate her new life.

mumwon · 13/09/2021 20:45

So he hasn't changed much - he just says this in a more round about way & the attitude is still there. lets consider his close friend Cummins - & the rest of the Conservative Coven at number 10 - judge a man by his fellow travellers
They are all selfish self obsessed posers who regard the rest of the plebs as merely a means to an end - & they have no regard or understanding of real people or real lives or any empathy - Narcissistic Sociopaths

ColouringPencils · 13/09/2021 20:45

Exactly what I was thinking @Zilla1. I haven't seen the speech, but surely the fact that someone has released it now means he is more of a contender than lonely clubbing in Aberdeen might suggest.

SunIsBehindGreySky · 13/09/2021 20:48

They are all selfish self obsessed posers who regard the rest of the plebs as merely a means to an end - & they have no regard or understanding of real people or real lives or any empathy - Narcissistic Sociopaths

I gather there is an over represention if that character in politicians, management, basically anywhere with power, sex and money.

GetOffThatPhone · 13/09/2021 20:49

He's always been a repulsive shit, I'd bet he says much worse in private company.

MrsTerryPratchett · 13/09/2021 20:55

At the same time Gove was spouting racist, sexist, homophobic bile, Corbyn was campaigning against apartheid. So no, '30 years ago' isn't an excuse.

Zilla1 · 13/09/2021 21:14

@ColouringPencils It will be interesting if this is intended to end his chances or to clear the decks for the contest to come.

I think he is at least able to respond to a R4 Today interview and dance round the questions better than most of the other Cabinet Ministerial contenders who either fall into interviewers' traps or just repeat the 'Lines to Take' from a briefing when these bear little relation to the questions asked. After Boris, I think that will be a less-valued attribute than it was.

I'd got the impression Gove was historically Murdoch and The Daily Mail's preferred candidate but with little of the vote-winning 'charisma' that Boris seemed to have. The divorce might erode some of the Daily Mail influence but not if they still see him as a winner.

The Chancellor's star seems to be in the ascendant but I don't know how well he'd cope with the fight. If he married into a family worth billions? then he'll have resources and networking.

Priti seems to be networking like a good 'un though that caused her problems in the past.

The mood music seems to be that some of the incumbents might face criminal prosecutions so I expect some horse-trading to come to trade favours for protection. Graceful retirement will be harder when you have a tiger by the tail.

MereDintofPandiculation · 13/09/2021 21:38

Rightly or wrongly racism, misogyny, middle class snobbery, xenophobia and Thatcherism was the norm No it was not. I was middle class 40 years ago. I would have found those comments offensive then, and so would my mother,

Claudethecat · 13/09/2021 21:43

The mood music seems to be that some of the incumbents might face criminal prosecutions

For what (genuine question)?

Bimblybomeyelash · 13/09/2021 21:48

Gosh it is depressing how thoroughly vile this current lot are. I hate that this is where we are in 2021.

TheHouseILiveIn · 13/09/2021 21:52

The homophobic comments make sense given all the rumours about him being gay.

TheHouseILiveIn · 13/09/2021 21:53

@TheHouseILiveIn

The homophobic comments make sense given all the rumours about him being gay.
What I mean is self-loathing/projecting etc
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