What I take from Gove’s Ditchley speech: more experimentation, less regulation, less social science input, more faith in scientific and mathematical interpretation of data, diversity meaning to “demetropolitanise” assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…
There is a hint of Gradgrind here: “Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the mind of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them.” 
Procurement reforms will get people cheering, but I suspect they will underpinned by a culture of less scrutiny, described as experimentation - dismissing both the NAO and big consultants in one speech is an interesting tactic, and note the nod to moonshots in the DARPA stuff
Set this alongside Oliver Dowden’s speech the other day gov.uk/government/spe… this is a low regulation, pro-small business, have a go approach to technology as a tool for recovery
If you believe that tech might save us, this is inspirational - but some things are missing. This is big talk about tactics but there’s no mention of the society deregulated tech and minimised social sciences brings. It’s a fast track to oppression and injustice with no recourse.
And of course, in the meantime we have OneWeb and the track and trace app. A lot can be closed in 4.5 years. Undermining the naysaying NAO and the PAC in favour of innovation, DARPA and data is a bold move, because who doesn’t love go-faster stripes, and getting things done, eh?
So the challenge is: who will speak up for diligence, regulation and the input of the social sciences? All the usual defenders will be dismissed as representing the academy, the 48% and/or the metropolitan elite. Complexity is not very sexy.
Also full marks for the A++ trolling that is a speech about maximising scientific data and minimising the social sciences with references to Gramsci, David Goodhart and a broad sweep through modern American history.
