Words: Tom Ward
In September, Michael Gove, the 57-year-old former Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, notorious back-bencher and political chocolate tea pot, was offered the role of editor at the right-leaning British weekly The Spectator.
Gove’s appointment comes directly from the magazine’s new proprietor, Sir Paul Marshall, a British hedge fund manager, philanthropist, and regular on The Sunday Times Rich List, courtesy of a whopping £630m to his name, as of 2020.
Image: Getty
A big Brexiteer, Marshall more recently made headlines for trying to pick up The Telegraph, as we previously reported. (Former Conservative MP and government minister Nadhim Zahawi is now allegedly in the running for the paper.)
As a Lib Dem turned Tory, Marshall’s directions for his new editor are up for debate
We might glean insight, though, from his ownership of right-wing news mongers GB News and the fact that the Financial Times once called him ‘an enthusiastic combatant in the UK’s own version of America’s culture wars’ – which is just what we all need.
Control of Telegraph Media Group is still up for grabs, but Marshall was successful in his bid to add The Spectator to his portfolio, sealing a £100m takeover in September. It was a move The Guardian’s Mark Sweney dubbed: ‘the next stage of his ambition to control a significant swathe of the UK’s conservative and rightwing media outlets.’
The magazine is now owned through Marshall’s Old Queen Street Ventures (OQS). “The plan is for OQS to make good previous underinvestment in one of the world’s great titles,” Marshall said, adding that he was “confident that OQS will be a fine custodian”.
Yet to some detractors, Gove’s appointment as editor might create a rocky start, given the former MP’s erratic political track record and less-than-popular footing among the general public. Then again, in many ways, Gove will be preaching to the choir in his new role, and he does have previous form in this sphere.
Turned down from the Conservative Research Department for not being political or Conservative enough, Gove turned to journalism
He wound up at The Daily Telegraph, then became a trainee reporter at The Press and Journal, before working in Scottish television. In 1991, he parlayed this into a national role for the BBC’s On The Record, and then for Channel 4 programme A Stab in the Dark.
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He’s mostly known, though, for his work at The Times, where, after joining in 1996, he held the roles of comment editor, news editor, assistant editor and Saturday editor. He also contributed to The Times Literary Supplement and – yes – The Spectator, and at one point described The Times owner, Rupert Murdoch, as “one of the most impressive and significant figures of the last 50 years”.
His appointment, then, at least makes more sense than George Osborne’s 2017 to 2020 stint behind the big desk of the Evening Standard.
As for Gove’s intentions…
‘Marshall and Gove may now collaborate to make The Spectator a more strident voice of the Conservative party’s right wing, perhaps by backing Gove’s favoured candidate for the party leadership, Kemi Badenoch,’ writes Professor Simon Potter for The Conversation.
And what does the man himself say? In a short piece titled ‘My plans for The Spectator’, published in October, Gove sets out his stall, beginning with a waffling paragraph about his old hopes to replace one of The Spectator’s former editors, Boris Johnson – an affair that entailed, what Gove calls, ‘Johnsonian mischief’.
He takes another paragraph to tell us that The Spectator is now doing well, somehow managing to shoe-horn a reference to Charles de Gaulle in there.
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‘What I hope I can do is bring the precious essence of The Spectator to even more readers – that sense of mischief, the commitment to stylish writing, incisive commentary, original and provocative opinion and love of freedom,’ he writes.
Then, in a seeming attempt to speak to the everyman, he writes: ‘Freedom? Oi, Gove, I can hear some readers cry. Weren’t you the Torquemada of lockdown, the Covid Cromwell who bound this country in a web of restrictions during the pandemic that reduced the British public to the status of compliant sheeple?’
(If you’re keeping count, he’s now compared himself to four historic figures in a piece of fewer than 800 words.)
Gove refuses to ‘re-litigate’ his Covid actions, and oddly points out that ‘I was involved in decision-making then as a politician.’
‘I am now relieved of that responsibility, to the relief of many. I am, once more, a journalist. And it is the role of journalists, particularly Spectator editors, to challenge authority, champion liberty and above all, defend free speech,’ Gove continues.
So, what does this actually mean for his editorial direction?
‘That freedom [free speech] must extend to knowing the editor’s opinion is only one of many and his past as a minister is of only historical interest and certainly no sort of ideological guide,’ he continues to write.
‘Gove may become the sort of editor that Stead and Leveson both admired, insisting on his editorial independence and holding his former colleagues and enemies (on both sides of the House of Commons) to account,’ Potter suggests.
But where’s the line between free reign for writers and a lack of editorial leadership?
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Instead of enforcing some sort of vision for the publication, Gove promises to leave it to the staff, vowing that they will never follow any party line, echoing that The Spectator ‘was not a political magazine.’
As for content, Gove writes: ‘The best magazines are parties on paper. A tidbit of political gossip here, a whiff of glamour there, humour running throughout everything, naughtiness indulged.’ There will even be competitions and reader events!
The thing about parties, however, is that it’s key not to outstay one’s welcome. Gove’s already spent 20 years in one party; let’s hope he doesn’t linger too long here as well.
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