Michael Gove
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Michael Gove MP | |
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| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 2 July 2007 |
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| Leader | David Cameron |
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| Preceded by | David Willetts |
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Member of Parliament
for Surrey Heath |
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| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 5 May 2005 |
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| Preceded by | Nick Hawkins |
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| Born | 26 August 1967 Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouse | Sarah Vine |
| Alma mater | Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford |
| Profession | Journalists |
Michael Andrew Gove (born August 26, 1967) is a Conservative politician, journalist and author in the United Kingdom. He is the current Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families and has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Surrey Heath since 2005.
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[edit] Biographical
[edit] Early Life
Gove was born in Edinburgh. At four months old, he was adopted by a family in Aberdeen, where he was brought up. His adoptive father was a fish merchant and still works part-time in the fish-processing business. His mother worked as a lab assistant at the University of Aberdeen and with deaf children for Aberdeen District Council. He was educated in the state and independent sectors in Aberdeen, latterly at Robert Gordon's College. It is not clear at which point in time he developed his present distinct speaking accent, a mixture of Southern English emphasis over a strong posh Scots; a phenomenon also observed with Scots singers Lulu and Sheena Easton. He later studied at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University, where he served as President of the Oxford Union, so he probably found his voice at some point on that journey.
[edit] Journalist
Gove joined The Times in 1996 as a leader writer and has been comment editor, news editor, Saturday editor and assistant editor. He has also written a weekly column on politics and current affairs in the newspaper and contributed to the Times Literary Supplement, Prospect magazine and The Spectator. He has written a sympathetic biography of Michael Portillo and a critical study of the Northern Ireland peace process, The Price of Peace, for which he won the Charles Douglas-Home Prize.
Previously, Gove worked for the BBC's Today programme, On The Record, Scottish Television and the Channel 4 monologue programme A Stab In The Dark, alongside David Baddiel and Tracey MacLeod. He was a regular panelist on BBC Radio 4's The Moral Maze and Newsnight Review on BBC2.
He played the school chaplain in the family comedy "A Feast at Midnight" [1],which was released in 1995.
[edit] Personal life
He is married to Sarah Vine, a writer on The Times, and has two young children, a daughter, Beatrice, and a son, William.[2]
Gove admitted to being a wargaming fan[3] after reading an article by another wargamer and columnist David Aaronovitch. He has also confirmed that he played Dungeons and Dragons[4]
[edit] Member of Parliament
Gove joined the Conservative Party at university and was secretary of Aberdeen South Young Conservatives. He has helped write speeches for a variety of cabinet and shadow cabinet ministers, including Peter Lilley and Michael Howard. He once applied for a job at the Conservative Research Department, but was told he was "insufficiently political" and "insufficiently Conservative", hence his turning to journalism.
Gove was previously chairman of Policy Exchange, a right-wing think tank launched in 2002. As Conservative candidate in the safe seat of Surrey Heath, he entered Parliament in the 2005 general election.
Gove is seen as part of an influential set of young up-and-coming Tories, sometimes disparagingly referred to as the Notting Hill set, including David Cameron, George Osborne, Edward Vaizey, Nicholas Boles and Rachel Whetstone. They are seen as modernisers in social issues and humanitarian interventionist in foreign policy. Michael Portillo has predicted that Gove will be leader of the Conservative party, although he has only recently won a seat in the House of Commons. When Cameron was elected as the leader of the party in December 2005, Gove was appointed as the party's housing spokesman in the team shadowing the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.
[edit] Shadow Cabinet
On 2 July 2007, Gove was promoted to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (a new department set up the previous week by Gordon Brown, the new prime minister), shadowing Ed Balls, a key supporter of Brown.
[edit] Politicial Views
Before becoming a candidate, Gove had expressed the view that the state should not generally interfere in domestic affairs, campaigned for greater personal freedom, opposing the introduction of ID cards, voting against them in parliament,[5] and wrote that "Section 28 is a nonsense". [6] He had flatshared with Conservative Ivan Massow who later defected to Labour over Section 28 and Nicholas Boles. Both Ivan Massow and Nicholas Boles are openly gay.
In parliament, he asks most of his questions about Children, Schools and Families, Education, Local Government, Council tax, Foreign Affairs, and the environment.[7]
He takes a pro-Israel line, and has criticised anti-Americanism, anti-Semitism and several United Nations peace processes. A self-identified neo-conservative, he called for early intervention against Saddam Hussein and was a strong proponent of the view that the invasion of Iraq would bring peace and democracy both to Iraq and the wider Middle East [8]. Surprisingly, he stated in October 2004 of Tony Blair: "I can't hold it back any more; I love Tony!" He is also a signatory of the Henry Jackson Society, which advocates a pro-active approach to the spread of democracy throughout the world. He has recently been accused of harbouring hostile attitude towards Islam and Muslims, exemplified in his book Celsius 7/7. The author William Dalrymple has described the book as a "confused epic of simplistic incomprehension" and pointed that contrary to claims on the book's jacket that Gove was an authority on Islamist terror, he had in fact never lived or travelled in any Islamic country, knew little about Islamic history or theology, and showed no sign of having met or talked to any Muslims. [9] Melanie Phillips and Stephen Pollard have vigorously rejected Dalrymple's analysis[10][11], and Gove himself has replied in The Times, pointing to Dalrymple willignness to 'trample over the truth' in order to attack Israel .[12]
[edit] Bibliography
- Michael Portillo: The Future of the Right (1995). ISBN 1-85702-335-8
- The Price of Peace (2000). ISBN 1-903219-15-9
- A Blue Tomorrow - New Visions for Modern Conservatives (2001) (ed. with Edward Vaizey and Nicholas Boles). ISBN 1-84275-027-5
- Celsius 7/7 (2006). ISBN 0-297-85146-2
[edit] Notes
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109784/fullcredits#cast
- ^ [1], Conservative Party website, March 2008
- ^ Come out of the closet, field marshal, The Times, January 3, 2007
- ^ [2], The Times, March 11, 2008
- ^ http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/michael_gove/surrey_heath
- ^ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1055-730993,00.html
- ^ http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/michael_gove/surrey_heath
- ^ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1055-396780,00.html
- ^ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2102-2366952,00.html
- ^ http://www.melaniephillips.com/diary/?p=1341
- ^ http://www.stephenpollard.net/002929.html
- ^ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1055-2375891.html
[edit] External links
- Michael Gove MP official site
- Conservative Party - Michael Gove MP official biography
- Michael Gove's column in The Times
- Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Michael Gove MP
- TheyWorkForYou.com - Michael Gove MP
- The Public Whip - Michael Gove voting record
- Open Directory Project - Michael Gove directory category
- Policy Exchange official site
[edit] Offices held
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
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| Preceded by Nick Hawkins |
Member of Parliament for Surrey Heath 2005 – present |
Incumbent |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by New Office |
Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families 2007 – present |
Incumbent |
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