One of the key events
in the political assassination of Boris Johnson was the (accidental?) release
of an e-mail from Gove’s wife, encouraging the assassin to stand up for himself
and demand a firm promise of a specific major role in any Johnson cabinet. It looked more than a little pushy, and gave
the impression, as presented, that this was all about personal ambition.
It was only a
few days later that I saw a bit more context
to the demand. It seems that some of the
press barons – notably Dacre and Murdoch – were more than a little nervous about
a Johnson administration, but had somehow signalled that their jitters might be
reduced by having a calming influence such as Gove in a prominent
position. (Why they’d see Gove as a
calming influence is another question entirely, but I suppose all things are
relative.)
It puts a
different perspective on the issue, of course.
But the funny thing is this: during the referendum campaign, amongst all
the calls to ‘take control’ away from the ‘unelected Brussels bureaucrats’, I
can’t recall the leave side ever telling us that they wanted to give unelected
press barons the right of veto over who should be prime minister. I wonder how I missed that.
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