Dear All
Over the years I have watched Conservative
MP Michael Gove appear on TV, even as far back as his Newsnight Review days
were he talked shite about the arts!
In all that time I have found him to be
unlikeable, the idea put forward once that he could be PM to me was bizarre.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Gove
has decided to speak out about a "preposterous" concentration of
individuals from the same privileged background at the top of the UK government”.
He also makes the point that this type of
cronyism did not exist in any other developed nation.
In respect of referring to the ‘Old
Etonians’ he is right, however, if you look at the Alex Salmond Party within
the Scottish National Party, they use a different approach to getting their
clique into plum jobs.
Just as it is bad for the Tories, it is
just as bad for the tartan tories.
Gove’s comments haven’t gone unnoticed as Labour
has decided to use them as evidence that the Conservatives are "out of
touch" with the concerns of ordinary people in Britain.
How many people are from a working class
background with no degree in Ed Miliband’s shadow cabinet?
Probably none, you would probably find
people who came from a privileged university background.
Meritocracy doesn’t really exist in the UK,
on both sides of the border with Scotland and England.
But to return to the Tories, among the Old
Etonians around David Cameron who went to Eton, are his chief of staff, Ed
Llewellyn; the head of his policy unit, Jo Johnson; the minister for government
policy, Oliver Letwin; and Chancellor George Osborne's chief economic adviser,
Rupert Harrison.
Maybe it is just co-incidence, but I think
more or less everyone wouldn’t believe that bunny.
Gove compared the ‘Old Etonians’ to the
cabinet of Eton-educated Tory prime minister Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, the
Marquess of Salisbury, who was criticised for alleged nepotism and cronyism.
Welcome to Britain.
Gove added:
"At the beginning of the 20th century,
the Conservative cabinet was called Hotel Cecil. The phrase 'Bob's your uncle'
came about and all the rest of it. It is preposterous. It doesn't make me feel
personally uncomfortable because I like each of the individuals concerned, but
it's ridiculous. I don't know where you can find some such similar situation in
a developed economy."
You probably can’t but you can find a
different version of cronyism.
Is David Cameron concerned that in the
higher echelons of the Conservative Party "more boys from Eton go to
Oxford and Cambridge than boys eligible for free school meals".
No!
You can gleam that from what is called the
A list of candidates.
Again where is the really ordinary person
raised up?
You would probably find more of a chance is
you went on Britain’s Got Talent where at least there is a slim chance of
success if you actually do have talent.
Shadow Cabinet Office minister Jon Ashworth
said it was a "reflection of the Conservative Party" under Mr
Cameron.
In looking at Ashworth, he went the uni
route coupled with the National Secretary of Labour Students, then Political Research Officer, then Special adviser and finally MP.
So, doesn’t look like he had an ordinary
existence, although not ‘Old Etonian’ route, definitely ‘Old Labour Students’
route.
Anyway Ashworth said:
"It's up to David Cameron who he puts
into top jobs, and the fact is that the Prime Minister has chosen to surround
himself with people just like himself. He's leading a Government that's
completely out of touch. That's why his decisions have helped a privileged few
rather than hard-working families, with tax cuts for people earning over
£150,000 while wages are down an average £1,600 a year."
Ping pong politics to try and convince
people to get votes, just as the Tories and the SNP are crony ridden, the
situation is just the same in Labour, each have their versions of installing a
clique.
So, what good goes Gove’s intervention serve?
Not much!
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
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