Comments on: Gove admits Tory government could move towards full profit-making from state schools at the Leveson Inquiry

By: tim bidie

tim bidie — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 06:14:55 +0000

In every walk of life there are commercial organisations doing untold good, whilst making profits that are reinvested to improve service.

Why should schools be any different?

By: Janet Downs

Janet Downs — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 12:57:29 +0000

mike – the TES (1 June 2012) had an article about how Gove was moving towards for-profit schools. It said that £337 million had been spent on free schools up to April 2012.

http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6243017

By: mike

mike — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 12:18:27 +0000

..and I read somewhere, wish I could remember where, that free schools in 2011 accounted for 0.001% of the provision but took 0.26% of the budget.

By: Janet Downs

Janet Downs — Thu, 31 May 2012 12:19:04 +0000

Mr Gove robustly defended the freedom of the press. He invoked Orwell – free speech, if it meant anything at all, meant offending some people at some time. But Gove fundamentally misunderstands free speech. He praised journalists who could present a case forcefully and with “elan”. This implies that style trumps substance – it doesn’t matter what view is being presented just as long as it is done with panache or passion. Free speech is essential for getting at the truth – that’s why dictators and repressive regimes stifle it. But free speech carries with it the obligation to tell the truth – free speech is not the freedom to distort, misrepresent and lie, no matter how elegantly it is expressed or how robustly it is delivered.

By: Janet Downs

Janet Downs — Thu, 31 May 2012 12:10:12 +0000

Mr Gove flattered certain newspaper editors (to keep them on-side) and praised the intelligence of the public who were, he said, shrewd enough to see through spin. This makes it appear as if his words are reliable and honest – how could the public possibly doubt the utterances of someone who recognises that the public are so discerning that they can see through political spin? To mistrust his words would be to doubt his judgement – and that would mean doubting his judgement about the perceptiveness of the public.

By: Allan Beavis

Allan Beavis — Tue, 29 May 2012 22:49:43 +0000

Gove also used his appearance at the Leveson Inquiry to trumpet on about not stifling press freedom as if the Inquiry itself had departed away from examining the often dubious co-dependence of politicians and media.

If Gove is really so intent on freedom of speech, why does he not publish his emails, especially those he sent through private emails and his wife’s account? And why did his special adviser tell the DfE not to comply with FoI requests?

By: Rebecca Hanson

Rebecca Hanson — Tue, 29 May 2012 20:39:31 +0000

Here’s a link to the video from today:
http://www.levesoninquiry.org.uk/hearing/2012-05-29pm/
The bit most relevant to this post is at around 66 minutes.

I’m particularly interested in where on earth Michael Gove’s belief that his free market policies would improve education came from given that they contradict the evidence and the theory of the economics of state education. We get some insight into how his belief in this might have been endorsed at 30, 32 and 36 minutes