What a bizarre choice of appointment Michael Gove is by the Prime Minister. Only just recovering from her defeat and humiliation in the General Election of 2017 she adds a minister who is likely to further alienate her from the public. By appointing the ever unpopular Michael Gove to her cabinet she is further undermining the public confidence in her abilities to govern as Prime Minister. It demonstrates yet again a severe lack of political judgement by the already beleaguered Prime Minister.
Michael Gove is probably the most despised and hated politician of a generation so why appoint him to the Cabinet?
Michael Gove was one of the most despised and hated politicians of recent years and when in positions of Minister of Education and Minister of Justice he managed to galvanise public opinion against him. He became probably the most unpopular Minister of recent years. In fact there was a sigh of relief when he was dropped from the Cabinet by Theresa May. Now he is back in again. On the face of it this appears to be another, yet another, act of political blindness on behalf of Theresa May. Mistakenly Theresa May believed herself to be popular amongst the electorate. She falsely assumed that the working classes would swallow her garbage about the Tories being the Party offering the greatest choice and representing the interests of the working classes now she scores yet another political own goal by appointing the most unpopular politician of a generation to her Cabinet. How many more political gaffs can this Prime Minister make before she exposed as incompetent?
My own view on the matter is more that Gove has been appointed to stem the threat to her leadership from BoJo. Mr Gove clearly has some influence over Boris Johnson which became apparent in the leadership battle otherwise why did Mr Johnson drop out so easily to leave the field wide open for Gove himself? It may therefore be the case that May actually needs Gove at this moment in time and has been forced by circumstance to offer him a job in her Cabinet. This may be a dangerous move on her part as Gove may already be scheming to make his own leadership challenge and she may in fact have only served to strengthen his hand. It may also be a a strategy of keep your enemies close by giving Gove, at least in part, what he wants. The reality is that Michael Gove could never be palatable to the public as serious material for Prime Minister anyhow: he is just too unpopular and will always remain so but he is also: scheming, ambitious, greedy, and above all a major threat to the weakened Prime Minister at this moment in time.