Is Gove handing Labour a dangerous weapon?

Michael Gove is back in the news, having come up with a new definition of extremism that he wants to roll out across Whitehall and beyond. Those captured by this definition, whether persons or groups, won’t be able to take up official roles or receive taxpayers’ money, with the primary purpose being to stop Islamic radicals embedding themselves in organs of the state. But in order to pass muster, both legally and politically, the definition cannot just catch immoderate Muslims in its net, so he’s had to come up with something universal – and therein lies the difficulty.

Is there a risk this new definition, which includes phrases like ‘aims to… negate or destroy the fundamental rights and freedoms of others’, will also be applied to gender critical feminists, anti-abortion activists and other bêtes noires of metropolitan radicals? The answer is ‘yes’, given that the decision about who meets the definition will be left to civil servants, most of whom have been taught by Stonewall to regard anyone who dissents from progressive orthodoxy as beyond the pale.