Twitter: https://twitter.com/NSoames/status/1111214357386575872
Michael Gove is currently the favourite in the Betfair odds to be next Tory Leader (ahead of BoJo in 2nd place). This is generally regarded as the worst place to be in the betting for Tory Leader this early in the running – front-runners rarely last the course.
But he’d better look more carefully at his feet in future and not place them so squarely in his mouth.
When asked by Nicholas Soames whether he would meet a deputation from the struggling ranks of the GWCT and Moorland Association to discuss some of the more pressing issues they are facing and which are causing really serious concern to the hard-pressed upland community of the Duke of Westminster and the like, Mr Gove was almost indecent in his eagerness to oblige and to say that this government is on their side.
What? Now if these were upland sheep farmers perhaps but that’s not who the GWCT and Moorland Association represent! We are here talking about some of the richest people in the country in whose midst lie the criminals who are responsbile for the near extinction of the Hen Harrier as a breeding bird in England.
You walked into that Mr Gove! Uncharacteristically dumb of you.
But if you do meet with a bunch of millionaire landowners then you could ask them how they are getting on with ceasing the burning of blanket bog which you asked them to do about a year ago and which they have been poor at doing for you. And, of course, you might want to bring up that paper on the ten times higher daily death risk for the Hen Harrier when it visits the grouse moors owned by the members of the Moorland Association than on non grouse moors? It would be too good an opportunity to miss – you could sell tickets for seats to watch!
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NSoames/status/1111214357386575872
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As I said when he was appointed, I endured his tenure as education secretary as a Secondary level science teacher in a state school and found him to be partisan, smug, self-opinionated and essentially ( like all tory politicians) interested only in the furtherance of his own career. I never trusted him when I was a teacher, and trust him even less now!
If Gove and Boris are the best they got then its way overdue the Tory’s are voted out.
We really need some politicians that listen and understand everybody’s concerns and are able to put them into context.
Gove is happy to meet the rich elite?
He should be doing something about the 2 million children who are living in abject poverty in this country!
I’d be totally ashamed to be in any of their shoes
He needs funds and votes for his leadership bid – where better to look than Sir Nicholas and his friends ? Behind all the bending over backwards to say how marvellous he is (compared to his Conservative predecessors) there has perhaps been a slight slippage from reality – especially as the good things he has done (and to be fair, there have been) have been quite small and immediate, whilst the big things in the 25 year plan look like the costly inheritance the Conservatives always like to leave Labour when there is a change of Government.
Recent events have and continue to show politicians* in their true colours and that their agendas seem to have little to do with what’s best for the country or ordinary people. We deserve better and we deserve a political system which serves the many not just the few.
Until extravagance is curbed (start by capping expenditure and enforcing it) in politics and those signing off bad decisions are held accountable then we will get what we deserve for failure to address the ‘corruption’ that is rife in the system ….
Many of us gave Gove chance, forget the media opportunities (litter picking in a suit, plastic straws etc.) I’m still waiting patiently for address of climate change linked issue like muirburn – but he gives us voluntary guidelines, illegal persecution of Hen Harriers and other raptors and he offers us ‘brood meddling’ and no sign of a PlanetB – all so familiar?
Hardly inspiring stuff, but look at the individuals to choose from ;( Judge on merit and that goes for the whole bunch of them.
Perhaps those who have made millions from the chaos thus far might donate to his crowd fund appeal?
* I’d like to think there are some of the 650 and 800+ who have a semblance of integrity but sadly they seem a rare species 🙁
Oh dear for those of us that put some or all their faith in Gove! I have always found Soames to be odious after all he is essentially a bloody Churchill. The Tories will always protect and conserve their pals in the big landowning classes with all of their unpleasant habits like burning the countryside, shooting our protected wildlife or farming it to within an inch for a profit (often a subsidy from OUR taxes) Under them money has always gone from poor to rich and the rich never pay their way.
This is hardly a shock just a wake up call and reality check. They are Tories and remain what Nye Bevin called them nearly 60 years ago!