Michael Gove received a surprising amount of support from the opposition benches when he unveiled his GCSE reforms in the Commons on Monday. Among those Labour MPs saying they welcomed his proposals were David Blunkett, Barry Sheerman and, most unexpectedly, Diane Abbott, who said that they would particularly benefit working-class and black minority ethnic children. ‘Mr Speaker, I’m in love,’ said the Secretary of State for Education. ‘The honourable lady is absolutely right. If I had been a member of the Labour party, I would have voted for her as leader.’
Listening to this exchange, I couldn’t help but turn this hypothetical on its head: if Michael Gove had been a member of the Labour party, would Diane Abbott have voted for him as leader? The honourable member for Surrey Heath is often talked about as a future leader of the Conservative party. But in many ways he’d make a better leader of the Labour party.
For one thing, he seems to have a more extensive knowledge of Marxist political theory than Ed Miliband, which is saying something when you consider who Miliband’s father was. A picture of Lenin greets visitors to Gove’s office in the Department for Education and he is fond of quoting Antonio Gramsci to wrongfoot his critics. In particular, he has grasped Gramsci’s point about victory depending on a long march through the institutions. To change a country, argued Gramsci, it’s not enough to control the government. The true revolutionary needs to capture all the ‘neutral’ organs of the state as well. And this is precisely what Gove has done.
Since his arrival at the Department, Chairman Gove has purged three of his top four officials, including the permanent secretary. Heads have also rolled at Ofsted, Ofqual and the National College for -Teaching and Leadership, with the bosses of all three being replaced by Gove appointees.
He likes to joke about overseeing a ‘permanent revolution’, but for defenders of the status quo in what Gove refers to as ‘the Blob’ (the educational establishment), the scale and pace of his reforms is no laughing matter.
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