Usually our Foreign Secretary sends out anodyne platitudes & jolly-hocky sticks GB tweets. But this time he's waded into the row about a person to be appointed to the universities regulator – irrelevant, one might have thought, to foreign affairs. 1/1
But the S/S for Environment is concerned too and has weighed in with his backing for Toby Young, accusing the public on twitter of thinking that setting up successful comprehensives is a crime.
And the Environment Secretary's wife is doing her bit too: “If the government fires @toadmeister then there is no point. We might as well just give up on democracy and let Twitter run the country” tweets Sarah Vine 3/13
Well that point is an interesting one – democracy. What elites (whist faithfully discharging the ‘will of the people’) ignore is that democracy requires respect for process, for its institutions and for the law. 4/13
So why exactly are two Ministers who have nothing to do with education weighing in with their support. That’s when the democracy argument comes very, very unstuck. 5/
Let’s just take a look at this: telegraph.co.uk/culture/donotm… and this: spectator.co.uk/2017/12/my-hol… and this: panampost.com/daniel-raisbec… and this: spectator.co.uk/2017/12/my-hol… ie mates for more than 30 years – all of them (don’t forget the Education Secretary is Boris’s brother). 6/
And 'mates' stick together. Just a couple of examples, Toby backed both Gove and Boris for PM: telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/3… ; Gove backs Boris’ hard-Brexit: telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/09/1… 7
And did Toby perhaps even persuade Boris to declare for Brexit? Where did he get this inside info: mumsnet.com/Talk/in_the_ne… Boris opened Toby’s Free school with a Gove joke: telegraph.co.uk/education/9405… 8/
And then they all share a common interest Toby's ‘progressive eugenics’, at least for the poor. After all, in their world more 'intelligent' people are just more worthy of respect. An uncontentious proposition for them, I fear: nosacredcows.co.uk/blog/2767/prog… theguardian.com/politics/2013/… 9/
As for attitudes to women – let’s not go there (at least in so far as Boris and Toby are concerned). You can find all you need to know on twitter and everywhere else now. 11/..
And finally, in defence of Toby today in the Times, a Spectator journalist (Toby is deputy-editor, Boris formerly editor): James Kirkup. My search for their history, revealed deleted tweets, just a few of thousands no doubt: politicshome.com/news/uk/educat… 12/...
For those who believe our roles are defined: “the gun, the loader, the beater, the flanker, the keeper, the picker-upper”, that shooting & fishing with mates makes democracy & that 'progressive' eugenics is a gift to the thick poor, feel free to defend this appointment 13/..
That’s the state of our democracy. Elites trading favours at our expense and believing that this is what amounts to friendship and to government. Shooting and fishing and laughing at us all, whilst they screw up our country. Respect? Not likely. End.
