Gove on Brown

Just back from Michael Gove's speech to the Bow Group.  It was terrific stuff.  Read the full text here.

Mr Gove paints Mr Brown as someone afraid of the future, untrusting of all but a small clique of protégés, unable to reform himself or the centralised state that he has created.  He is living in the shadow of Blair, he argues:

"Whether it's been Neville Chamberlain after Baldwin, Eden after Churchill or Bush senior after Reagan, the successor model has never quite recaptured the excitement of the first. They have been Roger Moores cast to replace the original Sean Connery - with the best will in the world the same quality isn't there."

In a clever passage he ridicules the Prime Minister's promise of "personalised" public services:

"Like those letters from direct mail companies that begin with our Christian name but have the same centrally-generated content, or cold calls from marketing companies which affect intimacy but operate to a tightly-ordered script, the Government's "personalised" public services offer just the level of distinctiveness the centralised bureaucracy consider necessary to make us feel looked after. But without that proper responsiveness to our needs which puts us in control."

Michael Gove's most compelling insight into Brown is, however, to understand him as a calculating, obsessive politician (the same message that William Hague delivered at the Party Conference).  Gove said:

"The Prime Minister and his closest colleagues spent the summer not preparing for the next century but positioning themselves for an electoral contest.  That's why we had the opportunism of a trip to Iraq where our soldiers were used to dress the set for a pre-election announcement on troop numbers, the co-option of slogans such as British jobs for British workers which a man as intelligent as the Prime Minister must wince every time he deploys and Jack Straw's shameless embrace of proposals to give individuals the right to self-defence which he spent all his time rubbishing when he was Home Secretary. These were tactical feints, designed to throw the media, and the Conservatives, off-balance rather than win converts for a newly-refurbished politics of the left.  And that's because there is no newly-refurbished politics of the Left, simply an itch to centralise and a faith in bureaucratic control which speaks of nothing so much as an attachment to power itself."

Before Gordon Brown became Prime Minister Fraser Nelson told me that the best way to understand Gordon Brown was as an obsessive politico - he thinks of his political advantage from the moment that he wakes until the moment he goes to sleep.  He schemes and calculates all day long.  If you don't believe Michael or Fraser, just ask Tony.

PS I'm quite proud of my photograph of Michael Gove!  Early next week CH will have uploaded the best photographs we've taken of Tory politicians over the last two years for public use.

3.30pm: What other blogs are saying about the speech:

Ben Brogan: "Mr Brown, he says, is the latest is in a tradition of tragic historical figures, idealists forced by the imperative of clinging to power to abandon what they once believed in: Lloyd George, LBJ, Mitterand. "In all these cases, when they fell there was not just a sense of an old order passing which had lingered too long, there was also a recognition that behind the swell and grandeur of their administration there was a hollowness, a series of empty exercises in manipulation."

Matt d'Ancona: "Gove’s portrait is of a man of passionate idealism driven to make a series of historic compromises which “in his heart” he did not believe in at all. Brown centralised power to win support for Labour’s tax and spend agenda by command and control. The result, however, was falling productivity in the NHS and education and demoralised health and education professionals, exhausted and demeaned by bureaucratic control."

Comments

[Andrew Woodman]

Michael Gove has summed it up superbly. Gordon Brown has been obsessed with being Prime Minister since he was at school. Someone with a thirst for power like that should be disqualified from day 1.

Can't get used to Michael Give without glasses. Like when Jack Straw got shot of them. At least he hasn't done it because he looked like the demon headmaster.

[Jennifer Wells]

Yes, excellent photo. It capture Michael Gove's humanity.

[Mark Fulford]

That photo, I think it makes him look like a ventriloquist's dummy!

Good speech though.

[Simon Chapman]

Bring back the glasses!

Otherwise, this is a terrific speech - clinical, precise and lethal. My guess is that it will wind the Big Brown Bottler up spectacularly. Which will lead to more misjudgements and clunking slips.

[William Norton]

You're all missing the point. The critical factor is what Mrs Gove thinks of the photograph.

[Andrew Woodman]

lol Mark

[tired and emotional]

That really is superb stuff.

[Common Sense]

Michael Gove really is the master.

This is a very serious and substantial analysis of Brown and why his politics will fail. It benefits from being fundamentally true, not something one can often say about descriptions of one side by the other.

I would urge everyone to read it.

[Comstock]

Gove said "Whether it's been Neville Chamberlain after Baldwin, Eden after Churchill or Bush senior after Reagan, the successor model has never quite recaptured the excitement of the first."

Interesting set of examples (2 tories and a republican). And interestingly he hasn't used the most obvious one- Major and Maggie.

It simply isn't always the case though. After Eden came Macmillian. And who has heard of Henry Campbell-Bannerman? I hadn't until 5 minutes ago when I checked the list in my dictionary. Yet after him came two giants- Asquith and Lloyd George- both from the same party.

I don't get his point and it's far too early to judge Brown.

[Tony Makara]

Good speech from Michael Gove. Fully exposing Gordon Brown's politburo-politics. Top-down government by directive with a a dash of pseudo-engagement for effect. As Mr Gove correctly implies Gordon Brown is a 21st century prime minister locked into a 20th century mindset. Brown is a prisoner of his own personality. He cannot escape and he wouldn't want to either. The man has become institutionalized.

[Malcolm Dunn]

I bet only you and I on this blog know who the Demon Headmaster is Andrew!
A clever speach from Gove but I dislike the way he compares Blair to people like Chrchill, Reagan or even Baldwin. Whilst electorally successful we have to look at what Blair achieved during his term of office? A kind of a peace in Northern Ireland but huge damage to the Union. Anything else? Really? Hopefully history will be as unkind to Blair as he deserves.

[R.Baker.]

Is he still known as a NeoCon these days?

[David]

i I don't get his point

Clearly, since it's not simply about succeeding to the top job after a member of the same party.

It's about succeeding after a figure who dominated the political narrative succefully for the time they were in office.Churchill did in relation to Eden, but Eden did not do so in relation to Macmillan, although Macmillan did in relation to Home.

[Jake]

COMMENT OVERWRITTEN BY THE EDITOR.

[Surrey_Boy]

I am deeply offended - clearly Moore was a superior Bond to Connery.

[MikeA]

Great speech. It really resonates with what we all see of Brown and his government.
For Brown, political tactics are tomorrow's newspaper headlines and wrong-footing the Tories. Political strategy is the Sunday newspaper headlines.

[EML]

I'm not sure Brown deserves a whole speech aimed at himself alone - it flatters him, even if the content doesn't.

I keep hearing from the most peculiar sources that Brown has some sort of immense philosophical intellect. I have seen no evidence of this. He's cold, calculating and very, very partisan.

He shows an unbelievable arrogance that he and his ministers know best - a trait common in all socialist-idealists.

What vision does he have of changing this country for the better? Nothing but more state control and a belief that public spending will see us through to some sort of "fair" utopia.

God I wish we had had that election.

[Old Hack]

So not before time the intellectual battle is joined, or not?

It's insufficient to tear Brown and his Government apart without proposing a timely and credible alternative.

This post-bureaucratic age stuff sounds marvellous but, frankly, where's the beef?

Idealism without ideas is just opportunism and whilst I'm sure Gove is quite credible to the metropolitan media and political elite, particularly those who've gone to the same schools and belong to the same club, at the end of the day we need meat and potatoes practical policies. Those he did not serve today. Nor did the Leader at the Google Zeitgeist beanfeast.

This speech was too clever by half. With that said, it is good to note the start of a serious critique of Brown.

But there's a lot more to do and it all boils down to how we want the shape and size of the Conservative run state to look. At the moment it's still pretty fuzzy.

[Traditional Tory]

Yes, excellent photo. It capture Michael Gove's humanity.

'Humanity' is not the word I would use.

Just when Cameron and Osborne are beginning to pose as Tories, Michael Gove emerges to thoroughly repel me from todays party once again.

[gingeral]

Bit harsh on old Roger being compared to Brown like that, especially considering he is himself a Tory, whereas Connery of course famously supports the SNP. Perhaps Lazenby would have been more apposite.

[Northernhousewife]

TT:
"Just when Cameron and Osborne are begining to pose as Tories, Michael Gove emerges to thoroughly repel me from todays party once again"
THOROUGHLY repel. How far?

[David Sergeant]

I don't get his point and it's far too early to judge Brown.

Posted by: Comstock | October 30, 2007 at 14:06

Come on Comstock do tell us what it was like living in the middle of the Brazil rain forest for the last 10 years.

[C List and Proud]

They say Willetts has two brains. Well Gove has proved you only need one, provided it's working

[Comstock]

David said "Come on Comstock do tell us what it was like living in the middle of the Brazil rain forest for the last 10 years."

LOL, hot and wet!

I meant it is too early to judge Brown as a PM- as chancellor I believe he is one of the best we've ever had, but to be fair I can only remember back as far as Lawson.

I don't know if he will be remembered as a great PM, but Gordon's record on the economy while at number 11 speaks for itself- and that's more credentials than the immediate alternative (DC) has.

[EML]

It's the way that you tell them Comstock.

Oh wait, you weren't joking?

[Michael Davidson]

Gove comes across as thoughtful and intelligent, it's just a shame he looks like a Thunderbirds puppet.

[Moral minority]

COMMENT OVERWRITTEN BY THE EDITOR.

[Comstock]

:D LOL @ EML....... :P...... ;)

[James Maskell]

Ah, a speech going for Brown. Perhaps as Childrens Minister, he could explain the general direction of Conservative Party policy regarding children in care, an issue he didnt mention once in his Conference speech.

Yes I mention this regularly here, but it winds me up so much to see us talking about the strength of the family unit and yet fail to say how we will deal with the consequences. It may affect only 60,000 children, but they are incredibly vulnerable and the Conservatives are ignoring them.

[Oberon Houston]

I have spent a long time (years) studying Brown and trying to rationalise his behaviour. Gove's analysis is by far the best I have read yet. If MP's, activists and supporters can dedicate the time to reading and understanding this speech, then they will have a newly developed and very effective weapon to deploy on this Government.

I already has a positive opinion of Gove, but he has gone up many notches more after this. I am really encouraged by the growth of talent within our party and hope it continues.

[Oberon Houston]

Malcolm, Blair blames Brown for fustrating his ambitions regarding reform. The complex relationship these two had and how it ties with the party is still unclear to me, but I suspect for all his failings, Blair was more open to decentralised reform and aware of Brown's addiction to controlling the agenda. But trying to control him was obviously beyond him - this is the key to the failure of Blair.