Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Michael Gove...


It's got nothing to do with how he looks and talks, the exes fiddling, or even the awarding of the uncontested 500k contract to the 25 yr old former adviser.


It's not the curious approach to reducing the "tyranny" of targets and tests by, er, increasing targets and introducing more tests. Or to increasing schools' "freedom" by expanding central control.


It's the fact that he has the gall to pretend that what he is about is extending the education he benefited from ? diverse, classically-driven, expansive and explorative - to all, when all the evidence he himself is providing proves the exact opposite.


It's the fact that he thinks that if he blows piercing blasts on the dog whistle of squaddies in schools, a return to discipline and "Free" schools, then we won't notice the the ideologically-bound fostering of a private sector land grab in education provision and its damaging fetishisation of the production of multiply tested, targeted and lobotimised drones that were once called children.


He may be looking us in the eye but he's pissing on our shoes, and he thinks that we think that he's giving us a foot bath...

Link to comment
https://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/topic/14491-gove/
Share on other sites

All good points, Ted, but I think the bit about "multiply tested, targeted and lobotimised drones that were once called children" (well, at least the first two) has to be laid at the door of the previous government. It's something couldn't be put into a published league list, Blair/Brown somehow made it so it could.
Link to comment
https://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/topic/14491-gove/#findComment-386081
Share on other sites

Whilst I agree to an extent, it's a little chicken and egg here.


The desire to test and tabulate children and schools, and to therefore determine rank, is as much driven by aspirational parents (who simply have to know that the school that little Toby will be going to is top of the pile locally) as it is by oleaginous politicians looking to score points.

Link to comment
https://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/topic/14491-gove/#findComment-386096
Share on other sites

The Tory Boy caricature misses a whole lot of Michael Gove's background.


Adopted at 4 months by a fishmonger and his teaching assistant wife MG was initially educated in the state system, only moving out of it by virtue of being bright enough to win a scholarship to a local public school - he and his family no doubt following the good Scottish tradition of revering education. As a journo he was a Labour supporting striker. Not sure when or what prompted his Damascene conversion to conservative sense but to pillory him as a member of the elite classes is both ill informed and pointless.

Link to comment
https://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/topic/14491-gove/#findComment-386111
Share on other sites

Tony Blair reached a particular low point in my estimation when, in an interview with Paxman, he refused to condemn the teaching of creationism in a school in the North East. All he kept saying in response was that the school was doing very well in the league tables. So that's all right then. Difficult to imagine Gove being any more enlightened. Faith schools under Labour, MacSchools staffed by squaddies and bankers under the Tories, difficult to decide which is worse.
Link to comment
https://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/topic/14491-gove/#findComment-386224
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Latest Discussions

    • He seemed to me to be fully immersed in the Jeremy Corbyn ethos of the Labour Party. I dint think that (and self describing as a Marxist) would have helped much when Labour was changed under Starmer. There was a purge of people as far left as him that he was lucky to survive once in my opinion.   Stuff like this heavy endorsement of Momentum and Corbyn. It doesn't wash with a party that is in actual government.   https://labourlist.org/2020/04/forward-momentum-weve-launched-to-change-it-from-the-bottom-up/
    • I perceive the problem.simply as spending too much without first shoring up the economy.  If the government had reduced borrowing,  and as much as most hate the idea, reduced government deiartment spending (so called austerity) and not bowed to union pressures for pay rises, then encouraged businesses to grow, extra cash would have entered the coffers and at a later stage when the economy was in a stronger position rises in NI or taxes would have a lesser impact, but instead Reeves turned that on its head by increasing ni which has killed growth, increased prices and shimmied the economy.  What's worse is that the perceived 20 billion black hole has increased to 30 billion in a year. Is there a risk that after 5 years it could be as high as 70 billion ???     
    • That petition is bananas.   If you want a youth centre there pay the landlord the same rent a Londis would and build it yourself or shut the f**k up to be honest. Wasting our MPs time with this trivial nonsense is appalling. If your kids are still out at 1am on a school night you've got bigger problems than vapes and booze and hot sausage rolls. 
    • There used to be a better baker than Gail's on the same site immediately before Gail's pulled their financial muscle.
Home
Events
Sign In

Sign In



Or sign in with one of these services

Search
×
    Search In
×
×
  • Create New...