One of Westminster’s best kept secrets is the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster’s love for rap music. Gove rapped a parody of Hamilton’s opening number last year at Carrie Symonds’ thirtieth Birthday. ‘Alexander Hamilton’ became ‘Alexander B Johnson’…
Now, in response to Angela Rayner suggesting he is “crap” at rapping, Gove is attempting to show her different Twitter.
Ben Bradshaw successfully caused a storm in a teacup last night over a mild-mannered speech by Michael Gove at the German Embassy. Bradshaw himself heckled Gove with the word “nonsense” and then proceeded to tell the world how awfully the speech, which received sustained applause, went down. Listen to the exchange above…
Gove: “Britain and Germany have so much in common, not just…”
Bradshaw: “Nonsense”
Gove: “I think Britain and Germany do have much in common”
What happened next was a textbook case of fake news spreading because a class of media Remainers were uncritically seeing what they wanted to see. After the event, Bradshaw tweeted an account of the speech that bears no reality to what actually happened.
Shameless & totally ill-judged speech by Gove at the German embassy tonight on the anniversary of German reunification on removing barriers & bringing people together, for which he was rightly heckled with calls of “humbug” & “nonsense”. #BrexitShambles
Off the back of Ben Bradshaw’s tweet, a host of journalists piled in
Apparently so and it does not speak well for at @GermanEmbassy embassy that it turned out this way. This is a vastly important relationship in which both sides have a strong interest and they should remain civility while they pursue it – however strongly their feelings.
In a textbook case of Brexit Derangement Syndrome, nutty academic Peter Neumann tried to claim that Gove compared Brexit to the “fall of the Berlin wall and East German’s quest for freedom” which he simply didn’t at all. Guido would have preferred it if he actually had…
In reality, Gove mentioned German Unification because the event he was speaking at was about the anniversary of German Unification. He didn’t talk about it in the context of Brexit at all. Ironically, clearly BDS-radicalised Peter Neumann is Chair or the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation…
Simon Schama, who wasn’t there, then tried to claim that Gove compared the EU to the USSR, asking “How can he sleep?”. Sadly for Guido, Gove simply didn’t.
Buzzfeed journalist Alberto Nardelli, who was actually there, tried to clear things up. “He wasn’t widely heckled. Heard one person say “nonsense””. His tweet received 46 likes, Bradshaw’s got over 6,000…
Listen to the speech and its reaction in full here…
Depending on what the legislation says, Michael Gove today revealed that the UK Government may find a way to work around it. Next week will be the greatest showdown…
Gove has taken to the airwaves to reiterate the Government’s position on Brexit, making clear that the UK is fully ready to negotiate but that the deal has to change, and that it’s “wrong and sad” that the EU won’t come to the table. This is not bluster from Gove – in case the EU have forgotten, the deal comprehensively failed to get through Parliament three times…
Meanwhile under–pressure Leo Varadkar has said that “there is always room for talks”, provided the talks aren’t actually about changing anything. Pull the other one, Leo…
Literally by the bike shed behind DEFRA off Great Peter Street Gove can be regularly spotted having a crafty fag. Is he weighing up for whom to vote? Or contemplating what might have been…
A Johnsons removal van was this morning spotted parked up outside Gove’s Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs. That would be particularly vindictive..
Tory MPs have been lightening up the leadership race with this picture currently doing the rounds on WhatsApp of a mischievously modified Jaffa Cake box that has mysteriously appeared in the Members’ Tea Room:
Boris supporters have not been letting this delicious deviousness go unchallenged. A rival image has now made its way into Tory WhatsApp circles as well:
Which one do Tory MPs find more palatable? We’ll find out this afternoon…
It’s crunch time in the Tory leadership race – by the end of the day we will know who the final two are, however many votes it takes. After last night’s results, Saj is trailing Hunt and Gove by several votes, however he was quick to insist that he wouldn’t be withdrawing. This means there will be at least two votes today:
10 a.m.-Midday: MPs vote in fourth ballot
1 p.m.: Fourth round result – three candidates left
3.30-5.30 p.m.: MPs vote in fifth ballot
6 p.m.: Fifth round result – two candidates left
In the unlikely event that there’s a tie, there will be an extra round of voting into the night from 7.30-9.30pm, with the final result as soon as possible after that. With many MPs going back to their constituencies on Thursday afternoon, as many as 25% of votes today are expected to be by proxy. One person who will definitely be voting by proxy is Theresa May who’s heading off to Brussels for another EU summit. 1922 Committee Vice-Chair Charles Walker has been entrusted with her vote…
With the unpredictable factor of Rory Stewart now out of the race, the talk this morning is that Team Boris is now on maneouvres to take out Gove by pushing the Saj through at his expense. Gove’s 2016 betrayal has still not been forgotten by many Boris supporters, they are out for revenge by dumping him out this time…
A defendant, who has not been named, was found guilty at Inner London Crown Court of possession of a class A substance.
Judge Owen Davies set him free, allowing the cocaine user to walk free from court with a 12-month conditional discharge, after suggesting during legal argument with the defence that the defendant “should suffer no more for dabbling in cocaine than should a former Lord Chancellor.” Gove, who bases his leadership campaign on effectively driving policy change, has effectively decriminalised cocaine possession…
“We’re talking about combining forces, because it’s clear that Boris is going in to the last round and the question is who is best placed to sit on a stage with Boris Johnson and who is best placed to ask the testing questions that need to be asked.”
Five of the candidates to be the leader of the Conservative party all give their final pitch in 30 seconds on why they should be Britain’s next Prime Minister. #C4Debatepic.twitter.com/FWJF3bhw9R
Looks like Rory Stewart’s ‘unique’ style of campaigning hasn’t done him too much harm, he’s managed an improbable jump into second place in the latest ConHome leadership survey. He’s still going to need at least another eight votes if the fun is going to continue.[…] Read the rest
Since the revelation that Gove was sniffing lines of cocaine whilst writing lines attacking middle-class cocaine use, rival campaigns are now trawling through Gove’s Times articles looking for interesting policy positions. One that was passed to Guido is particularly appealing and would likely go down a treat with a large segment of the Tory membership.[…] Read the rest
Michael Gove had to try something different to give his campaign a bump with the dust still yet to settle from his torrid weekend and he certainly managed the most energetic campaign launch of all the candidates so far. The line he decided to take this time was going hard on Big B…
Gove stands out among the Tory leadership field for being able to both set out detailed policies and not be boring doing so and there was plenty that will have appealed including his social care insurance and veterans policies.[…] Read the rest
Headlines like this are usually a precursor to the subject of them quitting because they only appear when expectant journalists ask “Are you quitting?” Friends of Gove say he intends to “Tough it out”.[…] Read the rest
This morning just as Marr began his interview with Michael Gove we published the regulations, enforced by him when he was Secretary of State for Education, on the prohibition of teachers for misconduct. Gove’s had responsibility as the Secretary of State to regulate teachers’ conduct and to hold a list of teachers who have been prohibited from teaching.[…] Read the rest