The Gospel according to Gove

[Guest]

I told you this guy has a Messiah complex:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/jan/17/michael-gove-king-james-bible

[Richard Tarleton]

I told you this guy has a Messiah complex:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2...ng-james-bible

This from William Dalrymple's Sunday Times review of Gove's book on Islamism [sic] Celsius 7/7:

Gove is an example of the sort of pundit who has spoon-fed neocon mythologies to the British public for the past few years. Gove has never lived in the Middle East, indeed has barely set foot in a Muslim country. He has little knowledge of Islamic history, theology or culture — in Celsius 7/7, he just takes the line of Bernard Lewis on these matters; nor does he speak any Islamic language. None of this, however, has prevented his being billed, on his book’s dust-jacket, “one of Britain’s leading writers and thinkers on terrorism.

Gove's book is a confused epic of simplistic incomprehension, riddled with more factual errors and misconceptions than any other text I have come across in two decades of reviewing books on this subject.

In many decades of reading devastating reviews this was one of the finest examples of the genre I've ever come across - up there with Trevor-Roper's review of Geoffrey Elton.....Dalrymple described Gove as "an ill-informed pundit tailoring information to fit pre-existing prejudices".

(In the interests of fairness, and for a contrary view, try http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/...ves/001122.php).

[amateur51]

How blissful!

[Bryn]

(In the interests of fairness, and for a contrary view, try http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/...ves/001122.php).

Is it not a bit risky getting involved with social affairs? Might one not pick up a social disease?

[amateur51]

Is it not a bit risky getting involved with social affairs? Might one not pick up a social disease?

Did you check out the SAU's Trustees & 'International advisers', Bryn?

The preponderence of penises gave me considerable pause

[Flosshilde]

I told you this guy has a Messiah complex:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2...ng-james-bible

When I was school librarian we'd often get books sent to the school by all sorts of bonkers organisations. The head would pas them on to the library, where I would duly consider the item & its usefulness & then file it in the waste paper bin.

[Lateralthinking1]

I am more interested in the boat business. If in the near future you happen to be in Dubai, you will have a chance to see the billionaires' latest yachts. There are plenty of them. The Sultan of Oman has one for example. Marvellous engineering. They cost a fortune. Tacky looking as hell. One vessel stands among them, truly regal, if a bit dilipidated. Here she is:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-16193083

No messiah ever chucked money down the drain willy-nilly like a British Government. Buy an aircraft carrier and don't have any jets to put on it. Buy the jets and then discover that they can't be used either, at least not on an aircraft carrier. Construct a railway line from London to Birmingham without any commitment to extending it further so that it could have some use. Most of that will end up in scrap metal dealers' yards of course unless they suspend prohibitive balls from Chalk Farm to Spaghetti Junction.

Incidentally, bible provision isn't rocket science. Just ask Gideon -

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43252906/ns/travel-business_travel/t/gideons-spread-word-one-bible-one-room-time/#.TxbAJKX86_g

(Three threads - is it really a Coalition or just a Gove-rnment?)

[anotherbob]

Q. What would you say to a being from a parallel universe?

A. Good evening Mr. Gove.

[Flosshilde]

Q. What would you say to a being from a parallel universe?

A. Good evening Mr. Gove.

You know Mr Redwood, I assume?

[VodkaDilc]

You know Mr Redwood, I assume?

I once met Mr Redwood at a concert (St John Passion) and he was surprisingly normal. Seemed to be genuinely interested in Bach too.