Slugger O'Toole

The New Deal was about more than a phrase, Boris. Michael Gove knows it and is bidding to be the government’s man of substance

Brian Walker on June 30, 2020, 5:34 pm | Readers 1724

Photo: The Guardian We knew in advance where Boris Johnson got “Rooseveltian” from. The inspiration came from Michael Gove, his friend and sometime rival who pre-announced Boris’s “bonanza” and gave him a sort of intellectual alibi in his Ditchley lecture last week. Johnson has the spectre of 3 million unemployed hanging over him and has had to think of something quick. Other than borrowing the phrase, he baulks at a New Deal. He warms up the old Tory manifesto, throws …

Will the promise of light touch, low regulation for the border in the Irish Sea at our ports be fulfilled?

Brian Walker on May 21, 2020, 8:35 am | Readers 2811

Larne Harbour If we have to have a border in the Irish Sea it would be great to keep it cheap and simple. That’s the powerful appeal of the British “Attitude to the Northern Ireland Protocol” available here in full. It contrasts with all the complex thicket of process in the EU version supported by a chorus of Europhiles. After all the UK government should know; they will implement it not the EU. It isn’t at all clear how the …

Gove, Cameron and the old four year Switcheroo…

Mick Fealty on July 17, 2014, 9:00 am | Readers 444

Here’s a classic case of where the polling mechanism breaks down. The question presumes there’s a meaningful difference in interest between Michael Gove and his boss, the British Prime Minister. I’m not convinced there is any such difference. I saw the Indy going to town on the salary loss, but to be frank, career progression in politics often means taking a hit in the near term. Govey’s work is done in Cabinet. Now he’s in the war cabinet. This one …

Gove calls for a split with Wales and NI on GCSE and A Level reform…

Mick Fealty on May 21, 2013, 11:18 am | Readers 83

Here’s one to put on the long term forecast. Michael Gove was over last week (not that our Education Minister was very forthcoming on what they actually talked about)… and now he has announced there is such a gap between his reforms in GCSE and the way it is done in Wales and Northern Ireland that there may have to be a split. John O’Dowd has said that he has no principled objection to the change. But that’s not been …