Murdoch Demands His Stooge Is Made PM

As Zelo Street pointed out yesterday, whatever the question, Michael “Oiky” Gove is never the answer. The modern-day Tory incarnation of Elmer Fudd would have royally fouled up the country’s education system had he been left in place at the DfE, along with his polecats Dominic Cummings and Henry de Zoete; the damage they did to staff morale while in post, and the demonisation of teachers and educationalists, was bad enough.

Moreover, as I also told, Gove is not merely close to the Murdoch mafiosi: he is a wholly owned subsidiary of it. So despite his being manifestly unfit for ministerial service - any ministerial service - his name is now being aggressively touted around as a replacement for Theresa May, who has earned herself the status of Joint Worst Prime Minister Ever, which she holds alongside her predecessor David Cameron.

The idea of Gove being given the Top Job is so ridiculous that it should not be entertained, yet the softening-up of the potential audience began last Saturday, as the loathsome Toby Young fawned “We are at a critical point in the U.K.’s history and the events of the next few days will determine whether these islands survive as an independent sovereign state or are gradually absorbed into a European superstate. Cometh the hour, cometh the man. The hour has come; the man is … Michael Gove”.

Moving right along from the thought that they sup some strong stuff chez Tobes, and that not even the screamingly batshit Louise Mensch was prepared to endorse that call, we arrive at today’s edition of the Murdoch Sun, which has led with a demand for Ms May to quit. A rare front page editorial concludes simply “TIME’S UP, THERESA”.

Who, then, would the inmates of the Baby Shard bunker have us accept as her successor? Ah well. Who better to confirm the Murdoch mafiosi’s choice than one of their own? Step forward Trevor Kavanagh, faithful retainer to Rupe and his appointees for decades past, to tell the world who his master would have installed in 10 Downing Street.

Under the headline “Michael Gove may rise from the dead to replace Theresa May as PM”, Kavanagh tells “MICHAEL GOVE emerged to my surprise last night as joint favourite to take over as Tory leader”. His surprise being the receipt of instructions to promote “Oiky” if he knew what was good for him. And Kav always knows what’s good for him.

So on he drones. “Not that I think he is the wrong candidate for the job. Far from it. I have been a fan of the Aberdeen fishmonger’s son for a quarter of a century … As Education Secretary, he proved he has the brain and balls to take on both Brussels and the public sector ‘Blob’ he blames for sabotaging effective government”. He didn’t take on Brussels, and there was no “Blob”, except in his imagination. But details, eh?

Michael Gove, just to show the venality of the man, was prepared to defend the attack on the memory of the late Ralph Miliband orchestrated by the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre. As the BBC reported at the time, “Mr Gove, who was a journalist before entering politics, said the Mail should not apologise for the original story since it was newspapers' job to hold politicians to account and, on occasion, to ‘upset’ them”.

That story was viciously anti-Semitic, deploying the trope of the “Disloyal Jew” against its target. That’s what Michael Gove is prepared to defend. And Murdoch is backing him.

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