Nobody likes a traitor

Nobody likes a traitor, especially in the conservative party where such action maybe seen as their modus operands, this time around would have none of this behaviour. What am I talking about? Michael Gove was seen as an upright and serious contender for the party leadership but all of sudden he was not.

Gove and Boris

How, it was the way he got there, most of the Members of Parliament (MPs) felt it was just too treacherous and deceitful for their liking. Michael Gove appears as a boring well-mannered bureaucrat, especially with the horn-rimmed spectacles. He started as a journalist and later became the Secretary of State of Education, allowing schools to become Academies if they wanted to. Then forcing others to the dismay of the Teachers, he degraded some of the GCSE results to improve standards. The Association of Teachers and Lecturers passed a ‘No Confidence’ notion at their March 2013 meeting, due to his reforms and changes to the Exam Curriculum, the so-called environment of bullying and intimidation, battles over data protection, etc. Also, there was a time he was Justice Secretary and he was awarded the post of the party Whip, where he maintained disciplined and kept other MPs in keeping with official party policy. Gove was a substantial figure in the Government and he really transformed the education system for the better. You see what happen in British politics was like a TV drama full of suspense, plots, scheming, intrigue, and betrayal. There is a TV drama, “Game of Thrones” and he will fit the Character “Little Finger” but people point to the old “House of Cards”, where Frank Urquhart in the TV show, played the role similar to Michael Gove in real life, almost other similarities Frank also was the Conservative Whip in the house of commons. And if you will like to go to the classics, Shakespeare’s Brutus, who stabbed Julius Caesar his friend, but as Brutus was an innocent and somewhat honest man doing it for the good of Rome. Similar to a statement Gove later said, as he was doing it for the good of the country, but Melanie McDonagh of the Evening Standard said Gove stated that “his motive was patriotism when it is manifestly clear it was envy and vanity”, so it will have to be manipulative Lago in Othello. Anyway, he seemed to have underestimated the love people have for Boris and seem to have overestimated his influence on the party. This was a man who said he was not interested in the top job at all, initially but felt he had to stand up when the situation presented itself. He successful left the government and pitched his camp with Boris Johnson on the "Leave" campaign. For the UK to leave the European Union (EU), which consisted of 28 countries and the UK was always on the EU edges. No country has ever left the EU before, because of the trading benefits, and the laws (Regulations, traceries, and directives) which protect the members, on Agriculture, development, fraud, consumers, taxation, etc. There are numerous laws, and the UK feels it always has to obey these laws, having little involvement in their creation, some see it has to be undemocratic – i.e. the laws of the country being drawn up by bureaucrats and non-political officials in Brussels. Then, there is the issue of their payment of £350 million every week, to the EU. But Britain received some of the money back, for UK Universities, Arts, Agriculture, Stimulating Regional development, etc. The issue that was the selling point was immigration, and since people in the country notice that their access to public services had been greatly reduced mostly probably due to the government cost cutting. The number of foreigners had increased and the EU did it would not budge on this, as “the freedom of movement” had been an underlying principle of the whole EU project. This what the British feared, more than anything else. David Cameron had gone to Europe to meet the main members on the issue of this, but the Europeans failed to bulge on this and giving Britain little or no concessions on this sensitive issue. The irony of it was that Gove convinced Boris to go against David Cameron in the first instance. So Gove brought down the Government and destroyed the “Leave” side. Leaving the country confused and in trauma. After the referendum many of the claims that were made since been swept under the rug. It turns out there weren’t losing 350 million per week to the EU, lots of Universities will lose money, all the list goes on, however on the other side it turns out things will not be so bad for the economy.

After the leave campaign had won, by less than 2%. The Prime Minister David Cameron resigned and we were all waiting for the announcement by Boris that he would want to be the next PM. But he said the person will “not be me” to a shocked audience. It turned out the Gove, had stabbed him in the back as Gove believed although Boris had “campaigned alongside me with such energy and enthusiasm – could build and lead that team. I wanted that plan to work. I worked night and day for it. But I came to realize this week that, for all Boris’s formidable talents, he was not the right person for the task”. The way he had done it was callous and sneaky, Boris described him as being a “Machiavellian psychopath” who plotted despite Gove’s claim to the contrary that he wanted the top job for himself. But what was accepted was that he did leave Boris in the dark about his plans till the very last moment. As he felt “Boris had not stepped up to the challenge” after winning the referendum and he did not feel Boris did not have the ability to be the PM.

The surprise announcement by Gove and Boris

Anyway, he put his hat in the ring for the Tory leadership with the support of 48 MP backing him against Theresa May, Liam Fox, Andrea Leadsom, and Stephen Crabb. The PMs had to bring the number down to 2 and then put the pair before the party members to select. There is a 1st vote which they bring the number down to 3 and a second vote, out of the 3 it comes down to 2 . Then the names of the remaining two are sent far and wide to the party faithful in the UK and they make the decision on whom they would select to represent them. A text came from his office before the 2nd ballot telling all the conservative MPs not to vote for Mrs. Andrea Leadsom. 

The Members of parliament seem to hate a back stabber as one referred to him as Brutus. Ken Clarke former Lord Chancellor was overheard saying “I don’t mind who wins as long as Gove comes third. As long as Gove doesn’t come in the final two I don’t mind what happens.” Although before that he had observed earlier saying that Gove will have us at war with “at least three countries” at once. He was described as “Britain’s worst political serial killer “.

Graham Stuart

In the end, he did not and the 2 ladies were sent to the members who will decide which of them will be the next Prime Minster. If he had not betrayed Boris maybe he would have been the had a senior position in the cabinet like deputy Prime Minister or Chancellor or even Chief Brexit negotiator. Some felt he was on the way to self-destruction and he had betrayed a close friend, he had been a friend of Boris since university and in politics, close friends are hard to find . Everybody has seen the way he treats his friends and they have seen the ruthlessness in him, I guess they would keep their distance and nobody will trust him. It seems nobody likes a traitor. The person who sums it well is Graham Stuart, Chairman of Education committee, he said to Gove in front of the entire parliamentary party, “Is this yet another reason why nobody in this room can possibly trust you ever again on anything?”.