Good Corporate Practice

Michael Gove, the Great War historian, co-author of the Bible and Murdoch swot in charge of juvenile patriotism, has been defending his purge of Sally Morgan, the dangerously female and left-wing chair of Ofsted. In the first place, Morgan has been doing a "fantastic job" and has "superlative gifts" - she is, in other words, somewhat qualified for the work she is doing. Naturally, this was a black mark against her in the eyes of Gove, who demands from others the same rigorous standards of gibbering incompetence that he habitually imposes on himself. In addition, it is Gove's view that "there is a principle across government that there should be no automatic appointment and that after three years or four years - whatever the term is - it is appropriate to bring a fresh pair of eyes. That is good corporate practice," and Gove's idea of education is nothing if not corporate. Gove himself has been in post for four years this coming May, but regrettably he does not appear to have been asked about his thoughts on the succession for the Ministry of Academy-Grubbing.

One of those who will most likely not inherit, Gove's Deputy Conservative doormat David Laws, seems to have had the moderating effect characteristic of the coalition's yellow partners: he extruded various spokesbeings to squeal that he was "absolutely furious at the blatant attempts by the Tories to politicise Ofsted." Somehow or other, Gove appears so far to have weathered that particular storm; and he got in a nasty dig at the enemy within by referring to a Liberal Democrat donor as "one of the guarantees of integrity you would expect".