Of Making Many Books

Michael Gove, who as a Conservative minister and former Murdoch Times leader-spouter knows all about moral and philosophical and literary thingummies, proposes to send every state school in England a copy of the Authorised Version by next Easter. Not only that, but these Bibles will be rather special: each will contain a two-line introduction which Michael Gove and his little men are even now struggling to compose. The idea is being touted (or, as the Guardian's psychic correspondent hath it, the idea is intended) as a means of helping pupils "access Britain's cultural heritage", in aid of which Michael Gove has done a lot of blathering about Austen, Dickens, Hardy, science, history, foreign languages and Gladstone, and has continued New Labour's policy of turning the state sector over to profiteers and the God squad.

The National Secular Society has irreverently suggested that copies of The Origin of Species be sent out as well (or, as the Guardian's psychic correspondent hath it, instead). The NSS points out that every school in England can most likely rustle up a Bible already when it needs one, or whether it needs one or not; which rather churlishly implies that a two-line introduction by Michael Gove may not make sufficient difference to be worth the effort involved.