DOING A GOVE — UNASHAMED. UNREPENTANT. UNREFORMED.
It was a truly horrifying reboot attempt for Michael Gove with Fern Britton on BBC1 this morning. As a career journalist he understands the value of a public mea culpa with interviews from friends like John Rentoul and his wife, Times journo Sarah Vine.
This is the same Michael Gove who
• spear-headed the Trojan Horse school scandal to attack and demonise Muslim schools, teachers, governors and students
• threw away the OFSTED rule book to attack outstanding schools which had majority Muslim pupil populations, that had formerly been in special measures and totally failed by government and local education authorities until local communities organised, took control and made them amongst the best in the country
• shockingly agreed to fund an unreformed and extremist Tommy Robinson (I know, I'd just spent 18 months with him for a BBC documentary), who was still defending a paedophile leader of the EDL - to go into schools to do what? That's right. Give talks to kids. To spread his ideals.
• used a pot of money which would avoid awkward FOIA requests. When I spoke to my friend, one of the most senior Tory cabinet ministers to find out what the hell Gove was doing funding Tommy, I was told it was from his ministerial slush fund *not* from Dept of Education monies which would come up in a FOIA request. And the reason why? "Michael doesn't find Tommy's views extreme". Tommy went to prison and then set up the UK wing of the anti-Muslim far right neo-nazi group, Pegida.
• has been a key supporter of the disgusting and now discredited racist anti-Muslim neoconservative group the Henry Jackson Society and Quilliam Foundation
• was a co-trustee of the European Freedom Fund with hate preacher, Pegida/Tommy Robinson defender and anti-Muslim smear merchant Douglas Murray. His friend.
• was called a "Machiavellian Psychopath" by Boris Johnson's allies in the UK press
I outed this same Michael Gove as being an anti-Muslim extremist on Radio 4 in a news interview on the World At One a couple of years ago (https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=ewpTmuT7g_8). Shortly thereafter, my parents had their home targeted in an 'immigration raid' by a squad of black uniformed SS who put everyone under house arrest, as reported by the BBC's Jeremy Vine.
The PM then sacked him from his job as Secretary of State for Education. All just coincidence, no doubt. Gove then went to destroy our justice system and ensure the ladder was pulled up on the poor, needy, disenfranchised, BMEs and Muslims would be denied justice by a broken system.
The question is how the hell these villains slip under the radar and why was he allowed to pollute the UK political scene with his anti-Muslim extremism? If it wasn’t until Brexit when he showed his true colours with Boris, would anyone *really* have paid any attention? Gove’s staggeringly good sense of judgement saw him at loggerheads with the impeccable Theresa May on more than occasion — but she’s made her career out of holding back the tidal wave of extremists and nut jobs in the Conservative party.
Extremists sometimes come in Joe 90 goggles and sharp suits, with all the airs and graces of an Oxbridge education. I'd rather these people just had a skin head, tattoo of a swastika and joined an EDL march - they would be so much easier to identify.
In the meanwhile, I guess good people are just going to have to remain vigilant. It's about what is in the hearts of people, not the colour of someone's skin, their religion or belief. Look deeper.
This is an era where we are surrounded by lies. When truth is held up against falsehood, falsehood perishes, because by its nature falsehood is bound to perish.
Stay strong folks. Keep your eyes and hearts open. Treacherous times.
First published 11 December 2016: Medium