Michael Gove isn't driven only by personal ambition, but his wife's

[Denzil_DC]

The only sensible conclusion we can draw from this week’s events is that we need more Etonians from the Bullingdon Club running the country. All that money on school fees guarantees its pupils emerge with an assured presence – impeccable characters who always make calm rational choices.

Hopefully, Cameron and Boris met up last night over a brandy and agreed, “Hmmm, it only took us a few years between us to wreck Britain, now let’s try somewhere more challenging like China.”

Because, with what’s left, nothing surprises you. Soon it will seem normal to say, “Oh, Bruce Forsyth has become leader of the Liberal Democrats”, and to see Jay-Z is standing for Labour leader with an announcement, “Hey, ya ready for a press statement? I said, ya need a leader that looks regal, done stuff illegal, drives faster than a hunting beagle, so vote for me, not this bitch Eagle.”

The people we have to feel really sorry for are those who voted Leave and now regret it. How were they to know that a vote to Leave would be counted as a vote to Leave?

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/michael-gove-conservative-leader-next-prime-minister-sarah-vine-rupert-murdoch-daily-mail-personal-a7111656.html

The ever-reliable Mark Steel sums up events of the last week.

[Sanity Claws]

1. My first reaction: horseshit.

It seems that The Powers That Be just want to make Gove more palatable.

[Denzil_DC]

2. Steel's a professional comedian.

His article is typically British snark. I don't know if you missed that.

He also slips in some political home truths - that's his style. He's a very smart cookie.

[Sanity Claws]

3. Haha. I guess I shouldn't comment

before I finish my morning coffee.
The whole Brexit and double-dealing intra-party feuding has me confused.

[Denzil_DC]

4. Coffee! Yes, sometimes indispensible.

It's difficult to pitch posts here at the moment for what is, currently at least, a wider (non-UK/not necessarily deeply familiar with the minutiae of the UK) audience.

I think most of us from the UK would have at least heard of Mark Steel and know what to expect (just as most of us would know who John Curtice is on a thread of mine below) beneath the provocative headline.

[TubbersUK]

9. It's byzantine

and baffles us all from time to time.

Post away

[Denzil_DC]

11. "Post away"

Yes, I should really have emphasized that!

Not that anybody needs my permission, just encouragement ...

[Ghost Dog]

5. Etonians from the Bullingdon Club and similar

are not unaccustomed to trashing...



... then getting daddy to pay off the damage and the damaged.

Who will pay now?

[LeftishBrit]

6. This would explain Boris but not Gove..

Gove did not come from an ultra-rich background, and was, I am sure, not a Bullingdon Clubber.

Certainly the Bullingdon boys' sense of entitlement is combined with a very unrealistic view of the world. To themselves, they are a brilliant elite, while in fact they are unpopular and despised by the majority of their fellow students, and all of their neighbours. This may explain why Boris actually thought he could get away with stabbing his recent constituents in London in the back, and lying to everyone.

Fortunately, there is less tolerance for the rich kids' vandalism than there used to be, and the university authorities will not protect them from the police in the way that once was the case (though daddy will still probably ensure that they won't get the same sort of sentence as a kid from a different background who shoplifts some packets of chewing gum during a riot).

Gove is not of that background, but he is an ambitious personality with a strong authoritarian streak. A male, less intelligent, version of Maggie Thatcher perhaps.

[Ghost Dog]

7. Yes, the Gove-Vine tandem smells like a more complex

kettle of rotten fish.

[Ghost Dog]

8. A mugshot:

... You see, we’ve got our country back. Instead of Britain resting in the hands of unelected bureaucrats from Europe, it’s now ruled by accountable people, such as Rupert Murdoch and Michael Gove’s wife.

It’s reasonable that Vine dictates the terms of the next Prime Minister, as she was fairly elected to the important constitutional role of Michael Gove’s Wife. If the people don’t agree with the way she runs things, they’ll be able to vote her out and elect a new Michael Gove’s Wife...

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. And she's godmother to Cameron's youngest daughter

Not a inter-family relationship that's going well, by all accounts: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/samantha-cameron-and-michael-goves-wife-sarah-vine-row-over-eu-referendum-a7001296.html