Michael Gove delivered the 2020 annual Ditchley lecture the other day. I know this will be a keenly awaited and even familiar ritual for most of you but forgive me – I confess I’ve never heard of Ditchley. After a bit of research I see that it’s a ‘think tank’ based in, of all places, Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire – where else? The research wasn’t quick by the way since their website seems to be running on a Sinclair ZX Spectrum – circa 1981.
Among the governors of Ditchley, apart from Gove himself, are Douglas Alexander, Lord Bilimoria, Stephanie Flanders, Charles Grant, Lord Hennessy and Dominic Grieve. Their high-minded mission statement is nothing less than the “renewal of democratic societies, states, markets and alliances.” These aims are described as an “urgent priority.”
His lecture (Full text HERE) is the kind of thing favoured by politicians like him, who see themselves as deep philosophical thinkers providing the intellectual rebar in his government’s sometimes haphazard and flaky policy making process. None of the arguments are new. And Gove is no great thinker - his lecture seemed to me repetitive and tired. Blair and Cameron said more or less the same things.
The lecture: The privilege of public service, has provoked quite a response on Twitter for its sheer chutzpah, some of which I’ve gathered together in a summary of the many comments:
On experts
The Cabinet Office minister will go down in history as the man who said during the referendum that people had “had enough of experts.” People might therefore be forgiven for being a tad cynical when he now proclaims a change of heart:
“We must be able to promote those with proven expertise in their current role to perform the same, or similar, functions with greater status and higher rewards without them thinking they have to move away from the areas they know and love to rise in their profession.”
On proven expertise
Just days before David Frost, the SPAD who is masquerading as our chief negotiator is announced as the next head of the National Security Agency, Gove talks about promoting people with “proven expertise”.
Frost has no experience whatever in national security matters.
Gove says, “We would not ask an Orthopaedics Registrar to become a psychiatrist in order to make consultant. So why should we require an expert in agriculture negotiations with the EU to supervise the Universal Credit.”
On innovation
Government departments are far too cautious and treat innovations “as though it were a mischief rather than a model.” He says in Whitehall departure from the status quo is assumed to be more downside than upside and that “these factors work against innovation.” Gove wants to see people “take reasonable risks” and be different, “given room to progress and, if necessary, fail.”
This is a government with the deaths of 65,000 people on its hands from coronavirus. While other countries played it safe we were “taking risks” - and failing.
On the planning system
“That is why now we should, as is our intention as a Government, do more to reform. We should reform planning rules to fast track beautiful development,” Gove tells us.
Let us not forget that in 2010, the Conservative government came in with a manifesto pledge to “abolish the unelected Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) and replace it with an efficient and democratically-accountable system that provides a fast-track process for major infrastructure projects.”
In 2015, the manifesto told us, “We have unblocked the planning system, to help builders start building again.”
This is the real gulf in our society, between the promises and the delivery.
I am no expert but I know enough about the planning system to recognise what another empty promise looks like. Let me make a forecast, in 2024 they will say they’ve unblocked the system and in 2029 we will see another promise to provide a “fast-track” process for planning.
You could not make it up.
The problem for Gove is the yawning chasm between his words and the actions of a government filled with men and women who seem to struggle with basic concepts of accountability, democracy and even something as simple as the truth.
We are crying out for honesty, integrity and competence and what we get is 69 pages of large font, double-spaced waffle from the Maoist Gove.
