In a moment of House of Cards style Westminster drama, Michael Gove has usurped Boris Johnson and is now running (contested only by Theresa May) to be the next Conservative leader and Prime Minister. Britain has responded with the hashtag #YouAintNoPrimeMinisterGove – and it’s brilliant.
Satirizing the popular #YouAintNoMuslimBruv hashtag set up by British Muslims in the wake of the Leytonstone attack, Brits are queuing up to list the reasons that Gove is not Prime Ministerial material in their eyes.
Dear Michael Gove #YouAintNoPrimeMinisterGove.
And now Twitter will explain exactly why pic.twitter.com/tmE43Dh49T
— Will Black 🍓🍄🚀 (@WillBlackWriter) June 30, 2016
The most common reaction was to reiterate the words of Gove himself, who has been telling Britain for years that he is not fit to lead the country.
https://twitter.com/Krupa/status/748480564085268481
Aside from those many, many videos now doing the rounds – they weren’t short of other reasons either.
https://twitter.com/edward_quigley/status/748487436045516800
#YouAintNoPrimeMinisterGove
Rejecting the opinions of experts is dangerously stupid, Mr Gove.
'Entitlement' =/= Intelligence.— A Geeky Girl (@1waytofindout) June 30, 2016
https://twitter.com/houmansadri/status/748482783195107328
#YouAintNoPrimeMinisterGove You're a perilous goblin who rhymes with Drove (Out the Teachers) https://t.co/fn6GYpOvxh
— beth's bowl of ennuitabix (@bethwritesstuff) June 30, 2016
Some even started to write him songs…
Gove. Walk out the door.
Turn around now.
You're not welcome anymore.#YouAintNoPrimeMinisterGove#CurseTheTories— Rob Dicken (@1970RobD) June 30, 2016
This move has the added cheer for non-Conservatives of presenting the Conservatives with two entirely unelectable faces at the next general election. Michael Gove, whose decimation of the education system gives him a level of public popularity somewhere between Thatcher and Enoch Powell; or Theresa May, whose increasingly belligerent and authoritarian handling of the Home Office makes her probably marginally less popular again.
Cameron is out, Osborne is silent, Boris Johnson is over, Michael Gove is in the ascendency – and Theresa May is apparently all the Remain side of the party have to contest him with. This was the outcome that The Canary suggested was possible all along. As we wrote weeks ago:
It is hard to see how Cameron will survive long past the EU Referendum. If the vote favours Brexit, we can expect a resignation imminently – but it’s clear that a vote to Remain is not going to buy him much time either.
Boris Johnson is the bookies’ favourite to be next Conservative leader regardless of Cameron’s departure date. But according to a survey by Conservative Home, Johnson’s reputation has also suffered a direct hit in recent months.
Believe it or not, there is growing support within the party for Justice Secretary Michael Gove. We have noted several favourable pieces on Gove coming out of Conservative media in recent months. However, while Gove would no doubt be a unifying force in the party, his public approval sits somewhere between Hitler and Pol Pot.
In the end, it happened. This is ever more incentive for Jeremy Corbyn to remain firm in position as Labour leader. A vigorous, left-wing movement that is unafraid to welcome alliances with the progressive forces in UK politics and campaigning (Greens, Plaid Cymru, the SNP, and grass roots networks across the country) – would likely trounce a divided Conservative party with an unpopular leader in the middle of an election fraud scandal. It’s time for the Labour plotters to resign, at the very least from their coup – and for Labour to take the fight to where it counts. The country is crying out for a progressive, anti-austerity government, and the only thing standing in the way are the Labour plotters.
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Featured image via Flickr Creative Commons
