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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Gove for PM

173 replies

jgw1 · 12/04/2022 17:57

With Boris the lamest of lame ducks with not much longer until he is toast and Rishi "don't tax me" Sunak seemingly out of the running AIBU to think that the path is clear for Michael Gove to become the countries saviour and best ever Prime Minister?

OP posts:
donquixotedelamancha · 12/04/2022 19:22

I agree, OP (except the best ever PM bit).

Gove may be evil but he's reasonably competent. He can't be worse than the last two.

Of course schools would be privatised immediately and the NHS within 5 years but that's happening piecemeal anyway.

JackieWeaverHandforthCouncil · 12/04/2022 19:30

With the amount of kompromat the press have on Gove not a chance. Plus he’ll bring his mate Cummings back into the fold.

None of the Brexiters want the top jobs. You may get the desperate ones like Truss throwing their hat in but she’s already been caught trying to claim outrageous expenses so there’s probably more scandals on her yet to come out.

The shit’s hitting the fan right now and they want to be nowhere near it. The Torys know they will not win the next general election, the cost of living crisis will only get worse. The minister for Brexit benefits can’t find any. I predict Johnson and Sunak will be left in place to carry the can (in fact they’ve probably agreed to take one for the team in turn for beneficial payback like Lordships) and be front page whilst the rest of them trouser as much money for themselves and their pals as possible and ensure they get good board jobs on departure from Parliament in 2024.

See you all at the food bank folks!

Ceph · 12/04/2022 19:30

@KeyErro

I dunno, did he have the rat-like cunning common sense to not actually break the law by attending a fucking party during lockdown? I don't care for the man but he seems competent and hard-working. It'd be nice to have a grown-up in charge.
I think he wasn't invited. Detox maybe?
IfIfitsIsits · 12/04/2022 19:30

@ChiswickFlo

He is a startled turbot
That is the best thing I've read this week, I think.
user1471505494 · 12/04/2022 19:33

Nice to see someone with a good sense of humour

elitecomplainer · 12/04/2022 19:36

Do you know what he did to the education system?

Ruined the mental health of millions of 14-18 year olds because he thought this generation had it too easy and education should be like it was in his day.

Most retrograde, backward, harmful, destructive move ever made in education.

Personally championed and brought in by Gove.

No more coursework (that turned out great with Covid) only 100% on exams. Mental health catastrophe resulting. All on him, IMVHO. I can hope his own family suffered equally to those teenagers whose mental health has suffered due to the arrogance and pomposity of him.

PermanentTemporary · 12/04/2022 19:36

Ben Wallace is being talked up on twitter.

I agree Hunt is a possibility.

Feeling angry that there's no serious push for, you know, an election. Maybe give it a few hours.

balalake · 12/04/2022 19:36

Michael Gove does detail, one of only two cabinet ministers of the present cabinet I would include were I making up a government of the Conservative Party. The other is Ben Wallace.

I don't think he will ever become leader as his time has come and gone, and his apparent lack of good manners counts against him.

He'd be less bad than Boris Johnson, but then again so would about 90% of the population.

PermanentTemporary · 12/04/2022 19:38

I wonder if either Reigate or Wakefield are on the phone to Dominic Grieve.

HardyBuckette · 12/04/2022 19:38

Much as Murdoch supposedly likes him, I can't see the Tories wanting to go into a GE with Gove at the helm. He comes off like he's wearing a human suit.

Isitsixoclockalready · 12/04/2022 19:42

@jgw1

With Boris the lamest of lame ducks with not much longer until he is toast and Rishi "don't tax me" Sunak seemingly out of the running AIBU to think that the path is clear for Michael Gove to become the countries saviour and best ever Prime Minister?
LOL
Iamsosadijustwantout · 12/04/2022 19:43

Good god NO!.. Little weazle of a man.. Reminds me of Barney Rubble from the Flintstone movie! 😂

Roselilly36 · 12/04/2022 19:44

😂 no way.

Pitafalafel · 12/04/2022 19:49

@the80sweregreat
Keir Starmer is doing just fine. The hysteria over trans people and changing rooms is a tiny non issue among 99% of the populace (who aren’t on mumsnet every day). In fact Starmer has positioned himself right at the centre of politics where the Tories imagined themselves to be with their “caring” Conservative spiel of a few years back. Before they got buried with Brexit, corruption, and destroying living standards. Labour has got 42% on the most recent poll - an 8 point gap over the conservatives. You might not like him, but the idea that Starmer is doing badly is patently false. Labour was considered dead and buried for a generation after the last election. Just two years on and Labour have a real chance to win most seats next election.

Pitafalafel · 12/04/2022 19:51

Starmer would love to face Gove - it would take his lack of strong personality/charisma right out of play.

Thatswhyimacat · 12/04/2022 19:55

I think he's the best candidate, as he fulfils the one criterion I would really like at this point - 'not an omnishambles international laughing stock'.

Skade · 12/04/2022 19:59

I would lay money today on Jeremy Hunt, as much as it hurts me to say it. He looks like an elder statesman in comparison to this shower of shit.

Diverseopinions · 12/04/2022 20:01

You are being totally unreasonable. If the timings go right, Sajid Javid would make a good leader: brave and modest; quietly witty and devoted to his family. And his back story, he just made it by his own efforts to head up a bank.
I liked him as a leadership contender before, and I admire the way he asked for an enquiry into anti-Muslim prejudice in politics.

Of course Gove can't be PM. His judgement is terrible. If you're going to knife your friend and ally in the back, at least know you have a chance of winning the race.

If Boris is a deceitful showman, yet got elected, that tells you that you need to be a showman. Judging by Petronella What's reflections and memoirs, Gove is a nice person in private, but politics isn't about how you come across at private gatherings. None of the good qualities he purportedly has translate into the public perception, at all. Add to that the infighting and alliancing he does, then forget it. The way he attaches himself to other contenders and then pisses them off, it would knock Truss and another out of the running with one roll of the scandal ten pin ball. They'd go down like skittles, because all his manoeuvring and leaking to the press has the effect of damaging everyone.

Yes, nice idea to make GCSEs harder to select the best, but he should have put in place more foundation level options and entry level papers for the less academic. Many kids just can't access the exam questions, ( especially in English) yet these kids have a lot to give. Functional skills needs to be overhauled as a spec, to give breadth of interest and challenge. He isn't as good at delivering as he is at thinking.

His wife will be wishing she'd sat it out!

Awalkintime · 12/04/2022 20:03

Gove may be evil but he's reasonably competent.

Competent? He thought that you can have most schools above average and didn't understand this was impossible! He ruined education to push for something that wasn't even possible.

Whiskers4 · 12/04/2022 20:11

Jeremy Hunt would be the best of the lot for me.

What about Dom Rabb? He wanted it last time Hmm?

munchbunch12 · 12/04/2022 20:14

@SenoraMiasma

We need Rory Stewart back.
Yes, this!
elitecomplainer · 12/04/2022 20:14

Yes, nice idea to make GCSEs harder to select the best, but he should have put in place more foundation level options and entry level papers for the less academic

And it's pretty crap at the top as well thanks to Gove.

Gove's generation thought themselves super duper for getting A's.

He changed it so most people getting A's now only get a 7. There are 2 levels above that (8 and 9 = A and A*) so a 7 is quite mediocre now. So kids are pushing themselves to get 8 and 9, whereas Gove's generation were getting 7. It is much worse than restoring traditional values. It is moving the goalposts, constantly putting more pressure on 15-16 year olds for exams.

Plus the most cruel bit? They didn't make 1 the top mark, they started at 1 and made 9 the top mark. So when Gove or his successors decided too many kids were getting 9s they could move the goalposts to 10 so 90% no longer good enough, maybe now they could be getting 95% as the top mark.

Reminder: in Gove's time 65-70% would get you the highest mark of an A.

He also tried to do the same at A level, and indeed there are now A*s in all A levels so the 17-18 year olds can destroy their mental health and physical health so some Tory can be satisfied that A levels are not getting easier every year (this was the Tory rhetoric Gove was buying into and perpetuating with his 'reforms').

ZenNudist · 12/04/2022 20:15

Yes rather Rishi and he is AWFUL than any other Tory.

Just when you thought we'd hit rock bottom with Bozza.... sigh!

tearinghairout · 12/04/2022 20:16

Gove is a slug who stabbed his mate in the back. I've never voted Labour but the Tories make them look really good - incompetent, arrogant and a moral vacuum. What a shower we've got in charge of the country.

IamnotaStepfordHousewife · 12/04/2022 20:17

As a teacher fuck no!!!