Michael Gove
CommentWouldn’t you like to live in the past?
Splendid architecture, fully staffed train stations in every village, motorway service stations serving the produce of local farms … Michael Gove makes his (optimistic) predictions for 2010
CommentCutting bureaucracy: Smash the system!
The spirit of adventure will thrive again, but only if we free it from the soul-crushing bureaucracy of planning rules, building regs, safety protocols and sustainability
CommentThe evil that men do
The government’s removal of empty property rate relief has been universally recognised as a wicked and ungodly act. Even Alistair Darling seems to have grasped this
CommentWould I have been blacklisted, too?
It’s completely understandable that firms want to do a spot of ‘due diligence’ when hiring workers. It may also mean that they lose out … Michael Gove makes the case for selective amnesia
CommentWho’s the fairest of them all?
Housing ministers have come and gone faster than a weaver’s shuttle – some doing better than others. Michael Gove gives us the best and the worst and reveals the secret of a successful tenure
CommentYour solution is the problem
A good way to enrage someone who’s in trouble is to offer to help, then stamp on their foot … which is what the government has done to those working on education schemes
CommentThe sayings of Bernard Cribbins
We’re back in the seventies… the decade of endless teabreaks, sclerotic roads and paralysed government – as portrayed in the work of a certain popular actor
CommentNot quite a pick-me-up
The pre-Budget report should have been the equivalent of a cask-strength Macallan, but it was more like a bucket of cold water – and we’re still heading for a hangover
CommentHow to score a bull’s-eye
The government is way off target on its schools building programme. So what, precisely, would the Tories do if they were in charge? Michael Gove takes aim
CommentPayback time
The government’s housing rescue package is too little too late, says Michael Gove, and it has left the public to pick up the tab for past mistakes
CommentI admit it all! I’m a conservative!
But when you compare the glories of traditional architecture to the stuff we build now, it’s hard not to be, says Michael Gove, our man in the bicycle clips with the neatly knotted tie
CommentAn old foe with new faces
Many of our present economic difficulties are really different forms of the same problem: our sclerotic planning system. Time to do something about it, says Michael Gove
CommentIt’s housing, stupid
What’s the one thing that affects our personal wellbeing, our personal wealth and our personal future more than any other? And what do you think might happen to any government that threatens it?
CommentThe kiss of death
Michael Gove A new breed of innovative school was beginning to emerge in England – until the government stepped in to help it with its Building Schools for the Future programme
CommentHere to go
Our latest columnist, Tory shadow minister Michael Gove, ponders how long Caroline Flint will hold on to her job – especially after that debut speech …