I wonder if Michael Gove was bullied at school. He looks like (and is) a very smart little chap, quick with the verbal response, ready to cap any negative comment thrown his way with a clinching one-liner of his own. I can think of at least one example of such a physically weak/mentally sharp individual being roughed up by his peers. Whether Gove was or not we will probably never know, despite being questioned by a studio audience on a special edition of Question Time last night, presented by David Dimbleby.
It was all about BREXIT, of course. Gove is one of the leading BREXITeers, and he pulled out all the stops last night. At one point he was all head: detailing the cost to Britain of remaining a member of the EU, listing the amount of money that’d be available to the NHS and scientists, if only Britain left the job-destroying machine called the EU.
At other points he got personal – not with the audience but about himself and his family. He recalled how his father’s business went to the wall due to EU regulations. When David Dimbleby quoted a statement from his father saying he sold his business, it didn’t ‘go to the wall’, and that other factors than EU regulations had played a major part in his decision, Gove dismissed his father’s correction as being a Guardian journalist twisting his father’s words. He told (hankies at the ready) of two young lads who were in care and who had been employed by his father, he even had an extra room built on so they could have somewhere to sleep, how loyal and grateful they were – and how the success story of their lives was smashed when the EU smashed his father’s business. The fact that at a later point he said this wasn’t about individuals or personal stories, it was about major issues of policy, didn’t seem to concern him a whit.
One woman in the audience summed it up well, even if her comment was personal, and a personal attack at that. She said she feared Gove was a wolf in sheep’s clothing, that his insistence regarding extra millions being saved from Europe and pumped into to the NHS rang hollow, given the Tory government’s dismantling of the NHS and his own co-authorship of a book urging a switch from the NHS to private health insurance.
None of it appeared to bother Gove, who looked about fourteen years of age. And I’d never classify him as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Sheep aren’t nearly as slippery as the Gove lad.
Sometimes you realize how bright or how stupid you’ve been, when you glance along the line and see who your allies are. Thanks be to God when I take a sideways gleek, I don’t see what Matthew Parris, I think, called “the rancid Gove”. But I’m beginning to get nervous that we may be about to deliver ourselves into the not-so-tender mercies of him and his like.
Great minds think alike Jude, It has certainly flash through my mind that “some bigger boy has made of with his sweet money in the dinner yard” and I can’t help thinking after hearing him – I bet there weren’t too many witnesses!
He has that arrogant, haughty little personality that seems only to pervade the English upper classes.
When I see the Brexit debates it makes me sad to see how Nationalistic and right wing England (especially the highly populated South Eastern region) has become.
There is a part of my brain that tells me, go on get out, Europe would be better off without a crowd of arrogant whinges who think they should be a major power running the world because they know best. Then the sensible part of my brain returns and reminds me of the millions of decent, liberal thinking people in England who do care about society in general and don’t think they are better than the rest of the world, decent people who can think for themselves without being told their opinion by the right wing Tory press.
The baby will go with the bath water remember and the liberal thinkers will be smothered in Anti-European recriminations if it all goes wrong. Remember if it goes wrong it will not be the Brexiters who are to blame it will be those horrid Europeans who are plotting to bring us down and prove that we cannot thrive on our own!
It will be the “Huns and frogs” who were beaten in the last war “telling us what to do” instead of being eternally grateful that we saved them from the Nazis and then the Soviets.
I have a great deal of respect for the English of whom I have many friends but it never fails to sadden me to see the general, unquestioning deference they have to nobility and the upper classes. Decent people like Jeremy Corbyn are in the minority.
There is no real pedigree of English Republicans who would have a health degree of suspicion of authority rather than the English system of deference to ones betters and relying on on the patronage of a section of the elite who were gifted with a conscience for the poor such as “Tony Benn”.
I listened to a programme recently about the MI5 double agent Kim Philby and in his own words he revealed how he was elevated to the top of the intelligence services because of his impecable upper class credentials.
I think a Brexit would set mutual understanding here back by a generation and I think that is why the DUP have aligned themselves to it. It is essentially a battle between pro European liberals and right wing Little Englanders.
It is quite disappointing to see the very low prominence of Sinn Fein in fighting the case for Europe and they are leaving it to the SDLP to fight the case, this is the same constituents who voted pro marriage equality and contains many liberals of all hues who probably backed the GFA and probably still form the majority of the electorate here.
I think they are missing a trick because if remain wins they can take no credit.
If Brexit prevails in England and remain prevails here they can take no credit and will be accused of cynically taking credit for something “on another man’s wound”.
If Brexit prevails in England and here they will deserve a good proportion of the blame for the counter of the DUP that “we are better off with Britain than we are with Europe”.
I have seen little or no evidence of a concerted Pro-European campaign by Sinn Fein but I have seen plenty of stuff from the SDLP.
Amazing that the attitude that “only exists in the English upper classes” is manifest in the Scottish Mr Gove.
I think Mr Gove has been washed clean of any Scottish traces…
I hear a clipped Edinburgh accent. It is a well known fact that some people hear what they want to hear.
I think he is actually from Aberdeen, though. Then again, accents can change. I know you are originally from Derry, Jude, but that doesn’t stop you sounding like an extra from “Pot O’Gold” every time you are slabbering away on Nolan.
Just two points, Joe: (i) I am not from Derry; (ii) I never slabber…
Or was it “Darby O’Gill and the little people” ?
It took Bloggs just 8 minutes between making a perfectly sensible interjection on Michael Goves accent and origins to sinking to rather spiteful personal insults. That must have been some shot he had to take him from hero to zero in such a short spell, and without conversing with anyone in the meantime!
What have you done on him Jude to warrant that or maybe he is just that nice to everybody?
You are right Pointis. Accusing someone from being from Derry is shameful. I apologise in full.
“But I’m beginning to get nervous that we may be about to deliver ourselves into the not-so-tender mercies of him and his like.”
My daughter asked me this morning what the procedure for reentering the EU is once enough of the old people die.
With the end of default retirement age, university fees, pumping of house prices and now the entrapment of our youth on these islands and the inevitable expulsion or erosion of EU related employment and foreign direct investment, young people would be entitled to get the guillotines out for this decaying generation of Daily Mail educated bigots that clearly loath them.
The vast majority of people who use the health service comment favourably on the professionalism and dedication of staff, personnel who are working in difficult and demanding situations. There is something dysfunctional, however, with a system that puts person A on a waiting list, to wait indefinitely for a consultation and treatment, and person B who elects to pay for private treatment which commences as a matter of priority and uses NHS staff and facilities.
A European Commission study shows public health care spending rising from around 7.5 per cent in 2007, to between 7.6 per cent and 14.9 per cent by 2060, depending on assumptions about population health, health service productivity and other factors. (Source: Ideas That Change Health Care, Kings Fund, 2013)
We are constantly told that choices are limited to accepting a decreasing quality of service or to change what is funded through the public purse and what individuals are prepared to pay for private insurance. Day and daily there is evidence of problems associated with access to medical care and care in the community.
While the debate about a Brexit rages, we tend not to hear as much about the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, an agreement that has been opposed by unions, charities, NGOs and environmentalists. Critics argue that regulatory barriers to trade for big business will be systematically dismantled in undemocratic discussions behind closed-doors. The provision of private health care is just one issue that has the backing of powerful lobbyists.
When individuals such as Michael Gove talk about choice, his words ring hollow. The reality today is that many individuals who have paid NHS contributions for a lifetime are now left with no choice other than to wait for Dr Godot.
Did you ever read the guff his wife has written about him in his Turnass & Bull’er dressing
gown in THE DAILY MAIL?
Are you suggesting I read THE DAILY MAIL, Donal? If so, my lawyer will be in touch with your lawyer…
wolf in sheeps clothing.there wasnt much wolf about him he pussyfooted around a lot of questions the brexit camp might think they will scare the horses if they put a hardline speaker up at this stage of the game and spell out clearly the new laws they propose to deal with migrants and refugees.which is at the end of the day what this vote is about for english people .
Re the Brexit Exegesis, Esteemed Blogmeister, a different joker dominated the press pack today down here south of the Black Sow’s Dyke.
That would have been, of course, the Knighted Knave himself, Sir Bob. The Gilded Gelding was still obviously on a high after his recent Helga-style sail up the Liffey to blow the behaysus out of the myths which still surround the Easter Beasties of 1916. A naughty nautical venture sponsored, first by the Free Stateen Government and then, ar ndoigh/ of course, intrepidly, by the every accommodating RTE.
It is a historical fact that the Helga started life as a fishery patrol vessel before it famously achieved infamy as a Gun-boat. Fittingly, once the hurly burly of the historical thingy had been done it unobtrusively resumed its original role as a, erm, Tuna-boat, aka, the Muirchu / Sea Dog.
Meanwhile, back to the avuncular Sir Bob Gelding and his latest ‘Say Neigh To…..’ campaign.
Yesterday, the Lovable Lout , who is, coincidentally, uberfluent in the standard Billingsate fish-wife’s vocabulary was on about matters piscatorial even as he went Shout-about once again while Afloat on – this time – the Thames.
Seemingly, to put it about that he is a (surprisingly?) devoted fan of Brussels Sprouts. Now, whether he (surprisingly?) likes the Monday Club or not, is a moot point , said club being a divided house, by all accounts, there can be no doubt whatsoever but that the lovable Speckled Trout is a devotee of the ultimate Kraut herself, erm, Huasfrau Saxe Coburg Goth.
It wasn’t only in London that the citizenry of the FSS yesterday showed themselves to be ultra-Europeans. Different city, different mode of transport. The hint lies in the Burt Bacharach classic, whose lyrics were penned by his pal, Hal David:
-Trains and boats and planes are passing by
They mean a trip to Paris or Rome…
Yes, indeed, Paris is the place, and a noisy carriage in a train is the space. Which can only mean one thing: (gulp) The Greatest Fans in the World on TOUR. Not mind you, a toney train of the Dort variety where the uber Poddy first cut his consonants, but more of a down-market, line dhearg, route rouge a la Le Liffeyside Luas, comprenez-vous/ an dtuigeann tu.
One knows this because it featured in the all-inclusive, non-discriminatory, generous-hearted piece in the main arterial route to righteousness (gasp) The Unionist Times, under the following jovial heading:
-Irish fans on a Paris train serenade a nun with a chant of ‘Our Father’ .
Ah, yes: the unpaid, green ganseyed Ambassadors of the Republic of Unbridled Bonhomie.
Hmmm.
Ever the dissenting voice, one’s inner Colm O’Cormorant begs a a couple of damn, amnesty-like questions:
1. Wny no subheading to the above joyous headline in the Unionist Thames, oops, Times:
– ‘Whether the nun liked it or not ?’.
2. What if the unwary passenger passing through the celebratory carriage had been, a Jewish rabbette, a Dworkin-class damsel in de rigeur dungarees or even (gulp) a female Bishop of the Church of West Britannia?
One await tomorrow’s, erm, inevitable broadside from Ullagowning Una, the Mullally Cat of Catatonic Correctness with no little, erm, trap door ideation. (for the Bloomsday that’s in it).
–
Well the EU has done wonders for Greece, couldn’t accept the democratic decision of a referendum in the South and is forever expanding.
I want freedom from Britain but I do not want to replace it with servitude to a European super state.
EU is a feeding trough for already rich and avaricious politicians. The Kinnocks among others have made a fortune out of it.
Which one of us has voted to appoint the EU president or any of the commissioners? The further the centre of power moves away from the people the greater chance of dictatorship.
That’s why I’m voting out not anything to do with the llttle Englanders.
Well Belfastdan your intentions maybe noble but you and others risk lumbering the rest of us with the prospect of putting the “little Englanders” in control of everything we do here.
The little Englanders want to decimate the NHS and introduce a private healthcare system, want to roll back workers rights and the role of trade unions.
Basically they want to take us back to a 21st century version of Dickens England. Be careful what you wish for!
When the EU signs TTIP be very careful what you wish for!
Belfastdan,
I don’t know anyone who wants TTIP. There is a great BBC Radio 4 Podcast on American Protectionism. Its conclusions no incoming American administration will sign TTIP.
Well said Belfastdan.
Not many people realize how big the gravy train is for MEP’s. Did you know that MEP’s get expenses for Entertainment? Oh yes, they get expenses for Entertainment, cant let them get bored now, can we? They also have expenses for their children’s education (usually private). They have medical expenses, travel expenses, food expenses, etc On top of this they earn around £200,000 a year. There is also private shopping centres for MEP’s, where they can get their hair done, eat in restaurants and expensive gift shops.
The EU is, at the minute, literally a dictatorship. The EU Parliament has absolutely no more power than Belfast City Council. All MEP’s do is debate EU laws, they have no power over it. The EU Commission, I believe, is where the power lies and most people don’t even know who these people are in the EU Commission because they aren’t even elected.
Neill Kinnock failed to become the British Prime Minister but the irony is he ended up getting more power than the British Prime Minister has when he went to the EU and he wasn’t elected in that position.
A heart warming attack on Gove who put in a very credible performance, way more informative than the Nolan show shoutfest.
If he did say the unmentionable, that the NHS is unsustainable, he should be praised for his courage and honesty to the electorate, it certainly is not a vote winner.
I do not agree with the party that Gove is a member of, their policies are terrible and devastate the poor. But I do not allow that to colour my impression of him.
He was impressive.
It seems to me that both Irish Nationalists and Ulster’s Unionists are in something of a bind on the European question.
I fail to see how one can remain a nationalist and at the same time support the subsuming of one’s nation into a European Superstate. Nationalism implies sovereignty, and I can fully understand why an Irish Nationalist would want Irish sovereignty; what I do not understand is why they would be willing to sacrifice that sovereignty to a rash of Eurocrats over whom they have no say.
As for my fellow Unionists, the wise and honest citizen recognises that Northern Ireland is highly dependent on British and/or European money. Unionists have a money problem – I fear it may lead them to vote ‘Remain’ – in which case they will have sacrificed their unionism, for the same reasons as those given above.
On the other point, don’t underestimate Gove – he was coherent – coherence in our contemporary age is a advantage.
Does anyone still watch BBCNI?
Jude, I’m not anti-NHS but in my opinion the NHS is overrated and I say that from personal experiences. Just yesterday my grandmother got out of Hospital, she has been very ill for the past 8 weeks and has been constantly bed ridden in the Royal Victoria Hospital. Her care has been terrible. She had been in Hospital previously for around 4 weeks and she got released to the care of my aunt who is her 24 hour carer. Just 2 days later she was in Hospital again with an unknown illness and we literally thought this was the end of her life. It turned out she contracted MRSA in the Hospital from her previous visit.
Another experience I had is with my elder brother around 10 years ago. He contracted a really, really bad skin condition. I have never seen the like of it before or since in my entire life. It caused my brother to erupt in massive sores all over his body and head and nearly left him blind. The doctors told my brother there was no hope and he would be left like that for the rest of his life. My brother is very head strong and, to be blunt, he told the doctors “Your talking crap”. My brother sought medical advice elsewhere and is now totally cured of his condition. He joined the French Foreign Legion and served for 5 years.
Another case, and this has been reported on the Nolan show, is about a young man called “Sean Paul” from West Belfast. I knew Sean Paul as a kid but we lost touch as we grew up. Sean Paul took a legal high and tried to commit suicide by hanging but it failed to kill him. His hospital care was appalling, I know this personally because his mother is married to my cousin. His mother and family actually had to change his dapper (if that’s the correct term) in the Hospital and many times they had to wash Sean Paul themselves. Sean Paul was brain damaged. There was signs he was recovering but he died. His death was not due to his original injuries but due to the effects neglect. In one case he was fed 2 meals in two weeks. His family are suing the Hospital and from what I heard the Hospital aren’t contesting the case and are accepting responsibility.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/heartache-of-grieving-seanpaul-carnahans-mum-claims-no-one-has-been-interviewed-over-sons-death-in-belfast-city-hospital-34532735.html
My mother is now nearing 60 and is in good health but I said to her that I will pay for private health insurance for her because I don’t want her to go through what my Grandmother, Sean Paul and my brother went through.
I know there’s many good doctors and nurses in the NHS but I’m not taking risks with my own and my families lives. The NHS needs to spruce up, it is being underfunded and its care is appalling and I have heard that from numerous other people too.