Michael Gove is a very clever man. The adopted son of an Aberdeen fish merchant, he won a scholarship to a prestigious Scottish private school before taking Oxford University by storm.
His friends speak of his civility, old-fashioned courtesy and love of ideas. He is a prolific writer who has penned a number of books, including a biography of his former political hero Michael Portillo.
Yet the Michael Gove we saw last Thursday was a totally different character from the man widely praised as a civilising influence in modern politics. This week, Michael displayed the Mr Hyde to his Dr Jekyll, committing one of the most appalling political assassinations in recent British history.
As a well-known fan of the hit TV show Game Of Thrones, Michael obsesses with plots and stratagems in the pursuit of power.
As Queen Cersei says in the first series: ‘In the Game Of Thrones, you win or you die.’
Another character, the wily and duplicitous Littlefinger, says ‘chaos isn’t a pit, chaos is a ladder’.
Michael’s torturous agonising does seem – how can I put it – incredibly timely.
The nominations for the Tory leadership closed at midday on Thursday.
By making his announcement just after 9 o’clock that morning, he conveniently reached his decision three hours before the deadline, allowing him just enough time to submit his own application while wrecking Boris’s ambitions. Wonderfully fortunate for Michael, and utterly unfortunate for Boris. Another ‘coincidence’ was an email sent by Michael’s wife on Tuesday morning, expressing reservations about him doing a deal with Boris.
This email was leaked 24 hours before Michael brutally dumped Boris, and seemed to justify his subsequent actions to the world.
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