Announcement of death may have been premature
Oh, crap. Published yesterday (the 27th). Not much to disagree with, although this seems a touch unfortunate.
Does anyone understand this paywall thing? BTW, those of you who want a 'Gove Watch' could follow DAaronovitch on Twitter. AFAIK, they like each other, but their differences are quite fundamental. Civilised disagreement between friends is much more edifying than criticism "filled with loathing" (© Nick Cohen).
Laws’ laws are not natural ones, and the coalition needs constantly to be reminded of how its policies impact upon the vulnerable and the disadvantaged, as well as the ordinary.
Does anyone understand this paywall thing? BTW, those of you who want a 'Gove Watch' could follow DAaronovitch on Twitter. AFAIK, they like each other, but their differences are quite fundamental. Civilised disagreement between friends is much more edifying than criticism "filled with loathing" (© Nick Cohen).
posted by Chardonnay Chap at 5/29/2010 02:28:00 PM
8 Comments:
I just remembered that i had something to add on 'consumed by loathing'. It does seem a pretty accurate summary of Nick's recent output.
OC if you (or other readers for that matter) want to write a post on any of Nick's Standpoint stuff this month, email it to me backword@gmail.com and I'll put it up. I find it too hard to read.
The paywall isn't going active for a month.
This works sometimes for by-passing pay walls.
Not like Rupert's short of a few bob is it?
http://www.bugmenot.com/
Just for clarification. My point about Michael Gove wasn't that he and Aaronovitch were particularly similar, but more that he provided a focus for the kind of stuff we're likely to see over the next four years.
I always thought one of the most interesting things about Aaronovitch watch was not the direct watching of DA, but the probing of a certain set of shared ideologies, tacit assumptions shared by a reasonably diverse group of fellow travellers, who were fairly influential. So for DA it was stuff like Birtism, rather than Cohen.
I just have a horrible feeling that Gove is going to be quite central to the next few years, just as Keith Joseph was to Thatcherism. Not just directly, but also indirectly in the ways that freedom as a concept will be abused. The ways in which fantasies of zero bureaucracy will be indulged. And of course, fairly extreme anti-Muslim rhetoric.
And I wasn't really expecting you guys to run with this concept. Its just that I'm too lazy/crap to do it myself, and I'd like somebody to do it.
GoveWatch is a horrible name incidentally.
Vaguely related but having read the EDL stuff in tehgraun recently I think something fairly big will blow up over that in the summer, involving what some people in that piece identify - the way that anti-Muslim bigotry has become acceptable in sections of the press. To the extent that Standpoint publishes long pieces on the EDL in which they are praised and compared favourably with unite against fascism... Gove's poisition on this will be interesting, i think.
Regarding Gove, he combines:
1) soft-libertarian politics
2) aesthetic Toryism
3) ever closer union with News Corp
4) neo-con/decentism
He's patient zero.
My prediction. Gove is going to be the route into the Tories for Decent Left types who think that being left wing is something to do with freedom and standing up to tyranny. Kamm for sure, but possibly also a couple from HP Sauce.
Post a Comment
<< Home