Gove has gone!

[bleedingheart]

Leaving education role, moving to chief whip I think

He can gather together a nice little blackmail sheet on each one of his colleagues and snitch to the head teacher about them.

dont understand the excitement here

have you read up on his replacement?

dont be fooled by the fact its a woman

hitler in tights

new suit same old shit.

Gove never stopped being Rupert Murdoch's man even when he was no longer officially his employee.

I doubt there are any Tory secrets that he doesn't already know, he probably knows more dirt than Cameron that's for sure.

I wonder if Gove will get round to writing that book about Lord Bolingbroke that HaperCollins (a Murdoch company) paid him for in 2004?

The excitement is because it is progress. The replacement may not be truly autonomous but she is a step away from Gove, and then there will eventually be another one, and another one.

It gives us all hope that change is possible and we won't be stuck with Gove forever...

I wouldn't be at all surprised if the stories win the election to find Gove back at education .The one thing about him was th at he never hid what he thought he is completely up front , not sure about this new woman .

Sorry Tories not stories although that's quite a good slip

Sometimes it's a case of better the devil you know...

This may have been said already above, but if he's chief whip, he will damn well make sure she is done as she is told!! He is a weasely little toad. I hate him. How anyone would vote for a party who treats them with such derision, getting women into the cabinet to win back the female vote - I ask you!?!

Hmm, I don't know much about politics, but here's what I've never understood, why do they not get experts in their field to be ministers in certain areas (or at least have MPs having a clear interest and knowledge in areas)? It always feels like these decisions are politically based rather than knowledge or what's the best for the country in the long term. How can they expect random MPs to swap ministers like this and still be experts in the area they are minister for and a good tactic for nothing to ever get done. There may be a very obvious answer to this that I haven't worked out, am genuinely interested.

Hahahahahahaha!

"why do they not get experts in their field to be ministers in certain areas (or at least have MPs having a clear interest and knowledge in areas)?"

Could it be so that when orders arrive from the financial backers and lobbyists, that they will be carried out to the 't' by someone who is struggling to get a grip and may not have a clue rather than being questioned by someone so presumptuous and with ideas so far above their station that they have their own point of view and think they know what they are doing?

"why do they not get experts in their field to be ministers in certain areas (or at least have MPs having a clear interest and knowledge in areas)?"

Because apart from the odd appointment from the Lords, you have to select from whoever is elected MP and there is no way to ensure anyone with a relevant background will be in the House (especially now that so many are Westminster groupies who have never worked in other sectors).

And what constitutes 'clear interest and knowledge' is too subjective to be useful. And could not be applied to huge departments such as health - which is as much about HR, real estate, procurement and logistics as medicine when you look at it from a policy making POV. A dentist might tick the 'right' boxes in terms of being a front line HCP, but that's not necessarily going to mean insight into, say, mental health policy that will be any greater than a lay person.

"why do they not get experts in their field to be ministers in certain areas"

As far as Labour are concerned, the answer seems clear. They have no experts, just well-meaning amateurs.

Schools Minister Lord Nash will make Morgan carries on with Gove's policies. Gove himself, as Chief Whip, will be able to pull the strings.

Gove has done incalculable damage to education in England. His "reforms" make it easier for education to be run for profit (50 of the 565 approved academies sponsors are education businesses); his "reforms" of the exam system still make school pupils in England some of the most examined in the Western world and still put too much emphasis on raw results; and his academies programme has given too much power to academy trustees/governors who can interfere too much in the running of the academy and give contracts to companies linked to trustees.

And don't forget those dodgy surveys he used to claim teenagers in England were thick when it came to history. Just in case you've forgotten, here's the link:
www.localschoolsnetwork.org.uk/2013/05/dfe-digs-up-more-surveys-but-do-they-support-goves-statement-that-teenagers-have-disturbing-historical-ignorance/

Whereas nobody can say the Tory & Lib Dem amateurs are well meaning.

'Whereas nobody can say the Tory & Lib Dem amateurs are well meaning.'

Gove seems to be the exception to the rule.

Gove had to go. It wasn't a surprise. He lost the Tories the vote of everyone with a child in a state school. He lost them the vote of every teacher. He's hated by too many people.

Now, interestingly, he is arguably in a position of even more power having influence over how MP's vote.

His successor won't be making any radical waves of her own. She will be quietly finishing off Gove's destruction of education.

I do hope the Tories may have listened, learned a lesson, and prove me wrong on this though.

I've just seen an interview with him - it seems he is anticipating an active role as Chief Whip.

I think it is plain wrong to attribute more to him that the ability to turn the Coalition education policies into action. He was never a dangerous maverick. He was, and is, a very skilled politician who can see through a programme. Thse who don't like that programme, but play the man not the ball, miss the point. He was never a sole voice pushing through his own agenda. He was a successful SofS ensuring the governmental programme actually happened.

Spottybra, I've never voted conservatives but they were winning my votes because of the education reforms. Most parents I know welcomed the changes.

Ilelo - I wonder where you live, because in my leafy pretty strongly conservative area - no parents I know support the reforms. The older their children are and the more teachers they know the less they support the reforms.

Someone said to me today that they know plenty of teachers who support Gove and think he has done a good job. Does anyone know any of these teachers or was he just making it up?

Really lilo and pico? I'm a teacher and a parent with a wide network of teachers and parents and his reforms are universally hated.

Most people that know a teacher understand the way he has torn apart education in the uk.

Really lilo and pico? I'm a teacher and a parent with a wide network of teachers and parents and his reforms are universally hated.

Most people that know a teacher understand the way he has torn apart education in the uk.

Pico, definitely having you on.