All governments have them -- loose-cannon ministers who act almost independently of their party's election manifesto and the Cabinet's broadly agreed policies -- but very few are as undisciplined as Michael Gove, Education secretary in Britain's governing coalition. Yesterday the Daily Mail revealed his plans to abolish the GCSE examinations and turn the clock back fifty years by re-introducing a two tier O-level and CSE examination regime. Called by the Speaker to account for himself, Mr Gove blithely told the Commons that, yes, he did indeed have something of the sort in mind and hoped to introduce it in 2015, even though, no, it had not been discussed at all with the Liberal Democrats.
You have to admire Mr Gove's chutzpah, or is it unmitigated arrogance? With one stroke he puts the future of the coalition at risk, ends hopes of greater social mobility by categorising students for life as fast-trackers and slow-laners, and tells the teachers they are going to have yet more upheaval in the classroom. The former Labour education secretary Lord Adonis who pioneered Michael Gove's favoured academy schools said immediately that he could not think of a worse educational reform.
Michael Gove is said to be one of the prime minister's closest and most-trusted advisers. I wonder whether Mr Cameron knows what his Education secretary is up to, and approves?
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