The Venerable Gove

[ursus arctos]

The Venerable Gove

This (from the FT) sounds a bit uncomfortable for Dave

But the prime minister’s involvement in the charity was under scrutiny on Wednesday after Dominic Cummings, a former adviser to Michael Gove, told Channel 4 the prime minister intervened personally to ensure funding for Kids Company, despite advice from officials and Mr Gove the funding should stop.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The Venerable Gove

Cameron can probably laugh off Cummings's word, because he's a swivel-eyed loon. He managed to cost the DfE £25k in a bullying case. Tim Loughton (ex-children's minister, and more respected) has said he had doubts before he was sacked in 2012. That might lead somewhere, I suppose.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The Venerable Gove

Cameron will deal with any allegations in detail.

ie "How dare the party of Reverend Flowers make this awful slur?"

[Tubby Isaacs]

The Venerable Gove

Cameron's other way to deal with allegations is to pronounce unilaterally that "it's time for a line to be drawn under this affair".

Media says, OK then.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The Venerable Gove

From the FT also

The organisation has been given an estimated £32m in funding from the government since 2008 but also relies on wealthy donors to pay for its work with youngsters in London, Bristol and Liverpool.

Spectator allege that the tax authorities in 2002 wrote off £589k which the charity had correctly withheld from employee salaries but kept.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The Venerable Gove

Couple of other faves in the frame.

The government was under fire for releasing the funding in the first place after it emerged that civil servants had raised concerns but were overruled.
Cabinet Office chief Oliver Letwin and civil service minister Matthew Hancock told mandarins to release funds, citing the “inspirational work that Kids Company does” and the change in management as part of the deal. The charity closed just days later.

Party of Business.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The Venerable Gove

She's flailing about all over the place.

She said reasons for the charity closing included:

it was dealing with too many serious child protection cases that should have been dealt with by government
not enough funding was given to deal with the number of young people the charity supported
individuals within the government wanted the charity to "disappear" - partly because Ms Batmanghelidjh was "outspoken" and highlighted child protection problems
an investigation by the Met Police's sexual offences, exploitation and child abuse command into allegations that details of incidents involving young people who used the charity were not passed to police - which she said led to a would-be donor not giving £3m

[E10 Rifle]

The Venerable Gove

Accountability is an old-fashioned Big State concept, clearly.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The Venerable Gove

So is cleaning up the mess when a charity closes.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The Venerable Gove

That Corbyn bloke might wish to make these points.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The Venerable Gove

And if he wants to point the finger at Cameron, Hancock, Letwin and IDS' think tank, so much the better.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The Venerable Gove

Wonder if there's been a battle behind the scenes here?

Machinery of Government changes: Data protection policy; Information Commissioner’s Office; The National Archives; and, Government records management policy

This written ministerial statement confirms that policy responsibility for data protection policy, sponsorship of the Information Commissioner’s Office, and sponsorship of The National Archives will transfer from the Ministry of Justice to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and that responsibility for government records management policy will transfer from the Ministry of Justice to the Cabinet Office. These changes will be effective from 17 September. The Lord Chancellor's responsibilities under the Public Records Act 1958 and associated legislation will therefore be transferred as necessary to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.

"I'm resigning if you don't move me out of Gove's fiefdom" the Information Commissioner might have said in the second week of May.

[Guy Profumo]

The Venerable Gove

Another crossover post.

This time here and the "Corb Blimey" thread -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34518706

[Tubby Isaacs]

The Venerable Gove

Seen Gove lately? He who told the clearest lie about cutting tax credits?

Here he is.

1pm: Robert Caro, the biographer of Lyndon Johnson, is interviewed by Michael Gove, the justice secretary, at a press gallery event.

I expect he didn't linger on the stage very long.

[Glass Half Empty]

The Venerable Gove

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35128010

Oh dear Mr Gove, how much is it going to cost to clear this mess up?

[Tubby Isaacs]

The Venerable Gove

David Allen Green, Ian Dunt and some others getting excited about the "liberal" Gove prisons policy.

Have they not studied Education policy? Politicized inspector, unfair competition, central control and privatization coming. All expressed in progressive language, where necessary. Plus outright lies, of course.

Green didn't like me calling him "naive".

[Tubby Isaacs]

The Venerable Gove

The speech was given at Policy Exchange, and David Laws has got a job out of it.

Seriously, how much more obvious can this be? Anyone else would be crucified for acting like they hadn't been in charge for the last 5 years.

Cameron though is launching a progressive crusade.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The Venerable Gove

Richard Garside, Director of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, said:

‘I’m glad that after more than five years in office the Prime Minister has noticed that our prisons are a national disgrace. Violence, self-harm, suicide and squalid living conditions are nothing new in our prisons. But they have all got worse since Mr Cameron has been in office.

‘The starting point of any coherent approach to our prisons is a clear commitment to a major reduction not just of prison numbers but of the criminal justice system more broadly.

'The Prime Minister’s proposed reforms are about the expansion and privatisation of criminal justice, rather than being a serious attempt to address the problems in our criminal justice system, or society more widely. They repeat many old mistakes, while adding some new ones.

'Mr Cameron’s seemingly progressive rhetoric is little more than a sugar-coating to what could be a very toxic pill'.

Like it.

[Geoffrey de Ste. Croix]

The Venerable Gove

[Tubby Isaacs]

The Venerable Gove

Toby Young has said this isn't like 1975, where the Out side had all the weirdo politicians, because this time they've got Gove.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The Venerable Gove

Has some of this thread gone missing?

I see Gove's pals are already building up the great lost talent, even if I hold no candle for Liz Truss.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jul/19/liz-truss-tory-justice-committee-chair-accused-of-misogyny

(Bob Neill) said Truss’s predecessor, Michael Gove, had had “the necessary clout” to push through prison reforms in the face of opposition from politicians and pressure groups.

“I’m also very concerned that there could be a loss of the impetus for prison reform. Prison reform is completely in line with Theresa May’s social reform agenda. There is no reason that this should be allowed to slip. But it’s important to ensure that the person in the job has enough commitment, enthusiasm and drive to take on the vested interests,” he said. Neill was a supporter of Gove in his failed bid to become prime minister.

[Satchmo Distel]

The Venerable Gove

John Redgove?

He could always go back to writing hate articles for Tory broadsheets.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The Venerable Gove

Turns out Murdoch was sitting in on Gove'''s fearless interview with Trump.

[E10 Rifle]

The Venerable Gove

A tireless crusader for press freedom and fearless journalism, as ever.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The Venerable Gove

Murdoch Brexit Trump.