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Cuddly Nu Tories: Old Etonians Singing from Different Hymnsheets on Religion and Race
How very queer. Hot foot from a couple of days visiting a Muslim family with Associated's scribblers, snappers and videoists in tow David Cameron came out fighting. Determined to out discriminatory language from facile politicians and media wallahs:
It’s hard to over-emphasise the importance of language. I know it sounds like a side issue, but it isn’t. We are just not getting this right. Every time the BBC or a politician talks about “Islamist terrorists” they are doing immense harm (and yes I am sure I have done this too, despite trying hard to get this right.)
Think of Northern Ireland – “IRA terrorist” was fine because it marked them out as part of a terrorist group,
Catholic terrorists would have been a disaster. Yet that is the equivalent of what we are doing now.
But Cameron posted this at Web Cameron scarcely a week after his Old Etonian (see comments) fellow Public School and Oxford comrade and arch-apologist Michael Gove almost hit double figures with mentions of Islamists in his Times column.
Islamist terrorists, Islamist idealogues, Islamist killers ... Gove mixes and matches the "I" word with great agility. Every couple of paragraphs in his remaindered 7/7 book too. And a double whammy for Cameron as he gets a facile, nay puerile politician AND a media wallah with just one barrel.
Hat tip to Mr Fawkes, telling it like it is for Toff Tories on Race.
UPDATE: Miles thinks Gove is "just like a miner" for his heroic industrial action on the Aberdeen Angus (or something like that).
9 comments:
You can't resist attacking the workers can you.
Michael Gove is an heroic NUJ striker.
He even said on Five Live he would never cross a picket line.
Cameron on the other hand. What is he on these days?
Going to stay with a Muslim family like he is doing an exchange with aliens from another planet.
Doesn't he just meet ordinary folk of all cultures as he goes abiut his daily life like the rest of us?
Are you sure Gove went to Eton?
Did he not? He certainly defended the old school and the preponderence of OBs on the opposition front bench in the Hitchins documentary.
I'll check ...
Miles: When did Gove strike? Did he go on a picket line? Was he ever required to attend for work on a day where there were effective pickets in place?
When will you stop this anal trolling about so called "low paid" like Give and Moore?
Chris
In the early 90s Michael Gove was a journalist on the Aberdeen Journal.
The company - Northcliffe, same group as the Daily Mail - ripped up the union agreement and the chapel - Michael included - went on strike for a year in a heroic but unsuccessful attempt to win back their rights.
So he picketed, petitioned, demonstrated, collected money, did everything a striker does for months and months - like the miners!
I think there is a picture of him demonstrating in the NUJ centenary history - but I might be wrong.
I don't think I ever said Moore or Gove were low paid - not these days anyway. Was just winding you up - with remarkable success!
Er, don't know about the remarkable success. But anyway Gove is not transferred into my heroes file by this information. He's a right-wing Tory nutter and on the "Islamic Terrorist" etc front he's bang to rights - just like many non-Tory scribblers and other journos who really ought to know better ...
But as anonymous says Mr Gove didn't go to Eton but instead went to Robert Gordon's College. the nearest equivalent in Aberdeen. Then to Lady Margaret Hall at Oxford.
Gove did mount a sterling defence for the Eton tendancy in the Peter Hitchens docu about Bullingdon Bully Bullshitter Dave-id Cameron.
Gove said that this coincidence showed how much these Tory Boys' mums and dads had cared about them ... to send them alone at an early age into the beastly arms of Eton for fagging, spliffing, bullying and the rest.
He also said that they probably didn't realise they all went to the same school - apart from him.
So. Cameron offers an opinion. Said opinion does not tally with the opinion of somebody who Cameron knows. Shock horror anyone?
There are enough real issues to tackle without making yourself sound like a petty reverse snob.
Petty reverse snob? What are you on about??
Michael Gove broke all the rules Cameron laid down. In pretty close temporal juxtaposition to them. I happen to be more agreed with Cameron's rules on this than with Gove's careless rabble rousing which I think is indefensible.
Gove is widely tipped for a promotion to something international (Shadow Foreign Secretary?) but as his wiki points out he has never been to the areas or even mixed much with the cultures he purports to be an expert on.
Where does he get his "expertise" from?
He also had his rabbit in headlights moment in the Hitchins film. Cameron cannot promote him unless Gove recants completely and has his hateful book pulped and recalled.
PS Clearly the idea of people paying £25,000 a year to give their boys a boost on getting on the Tory front bench is not something I agree with. It's not like they've got brains the size of mars is it?
Thanks for the elaboration. I might note that you accomplished it pretty well without a single 'toff' reference :-)
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