Greenman's Occasional Organ

Ecosocialist. Syndicalist. Critical Techno-Progressive.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Gove Must Go

A New Year's resolution of this blog is to seek to end the political career of one Michael Gove, the British Coalition Government's Education Secretary. Gove is well on his way to destroying education in England and Wales for the foreseeable future. He is breaking up the school system, wrecking and vandalising the school curriculum, has destroyed the careers service, is destroying any meaningful democratic oversight at local level and will not listen to anyone who points out the disaster his policies are creating. What is more, he is seen as one of the strongest assets of this evil government, is a Henry Jackson Society Neo-Con, a spawn of the Murdoch media empire, and is tipped by some as a future Tory leader. Ample reason for anyone with a progressive bone in their body to want to stop him in his tracks and end his ascent by any non-violent method possible. I hold him personally responsible for a number of job losses close to home. So to get things started : this was posted on the Guardian CIF site, lifted from the print edition of Private Eye:
A quote directly from the Private Eye, issue no 1304 pg 7. "Gove attracts tens of thousands of pounds in donations(more than any other cabinet minister) to fund his local party organisation in the super safe Surrey Heath constituency. His latest entry in the register of MPs interests includes £3000 from Dilman UK - the name of a village in Azerbaijan - does not have its own address and donated cash through a Surrey account. The company is owned by Mahmoud Zadeh, a member of the Anglo-Azerbaijani Society, a business lobby which promotes a trade links with the oil rich country, BP, Britains biggest investor in Azerbaijan backs this society.....the Eye asked Goves office about the doantion but received no response" So the question is, why does an Education Minister need to have links with an Oil trade links society? What is Mr Gove getting out of this, apart from £3000 Why is Mr Gove being so coy?
Another thing that needs to be widely known about is his behaviour in the expenses scandal, detailed on Wikipedia thus:
Michael Gove reportedly claimed £7,000 for furnishing a London property before 'flipping' his designated second home to a house in his constituency, a property for which he claimed around £13,000 to cover stamp duty. Around a third of the first £7,000 was spent at an interior design company owned by Gove's mother-in-law.[22] Gove also claimed for a cot mattress, despite children's items being banned under the Commons rule. Gove said he would repay the claim for the cot mattress, but maintained that his other claims were "below the acceptable threshold costs for furniture" and that the property flipping was necessary "to effectively discharge my parliamentary duties".[22] While he was moving between homes, he stayed at the Pennyhill Park Hotel and Spa, charging the taxpayer more than £500 per night's stay.
Any further dirt on Mr Gove or directions to online material that can be used against him are appreciated.

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