• Contact
  • About
DONATE
NEWSLETTER SIGN UP
  • Login
North East Bylines
  • Home
  • News
  • Culture
  • Lifestyle
  • Business
  • Region
  • Opinion
AUDIO
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Culture
  • Lifestyle
  • Business
  • Region
  • Opinion
No Result
View All Result
North East Bylines
Home Region Co. Durham

Gove’s comments on northerners: the Westminster attitude towards our region

Michael Gove is remembered by different people for different things. Some recall his infamous line, “people have had enough of experts”.

Lauren WhitebyLauren White
16-09-2021 03:08 - Updated On 19-05-2023 20:44
in Co. Durham, Education, Northumberland, Politics, Teesside, Tyneside, UK, Wearside
Reading Time: 6 mins
A A
"Michael Gove Covid-19 Presser 27/03" by UK Prime Minister is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

"Michael Gove Covid-19 Presser 27/03" by UK Prime Minister is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Michael Gove is remembered by different people for different things. Some recall his infamous line, “people have had enough of experts”. Some recall Gove’s removal of American literature from the English GCSE curriculum, meaning age-old traditions of reading anti-prejudice novels such as To Kill A Mockingbird and Of Mice and Men were slashed.

What a coincidence, then, that Michael Gove’s racist and homophobic comments (made rather proudly in the 1980s and 1990s) are now ones associated with his public image. These comments labelled the people in former British colonies “fuzzy-wuzzies”, and purported that gay people “thrive primarily upon short-term” relationships.

There was also a huge part of these comments that has escaped the headlines: Gove’s prejudicial, demoralising attitude towards northerners.

Gove’s attitude to northerners

It is this part of the report, published by The Independent this week, Mr Gove said, during a Cambridge University evening debate, that Margaret Thatcher’s policies were a “new empire” where “the happy south stamps over the cruel, dirty, toothless face of the northerner”. 

In 2019, Michael Gove told The Yorkshire Post that the North-South divide is “a very real thing”, and that “it is wrong that you should have an economic model which says that the most successful and talented people should gravitate towards London”.

Of course, views can change over time. But the comments made by Gove when he was an adult in the 1990s are ones most of us in the north would expect him to hold anyway. It’s not a surprise to us to hear a man at the heart of government say we are cruel, dirty, and toothless. And that’s an indictment on this government and Gove’s beloved Margaret Thatcher too.

Thatcher’s “new empire”

The comments are repulsive when you really examine their context. Thatcher’s “new empire” is the only true part of what Gove said. Thatcher did create a new empire – one that was exclusively for the wealthy in this country, most of whom belong to the south. The new empire for the south was born by crushing an empire of industry in the north. That’s partially why Gove’s comments are so distasteful in the north.

Be it the shipyards in Newcastle, the mines of Gateshead and County Durham and far, far beyond, the way industry in the North East was crushed by Thatcher’s policies has been insulting enough. Never mind the knowledge that the current Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and former Education Secretary has revelled in the suffering of thousands from our region.

The poorest in the country

These thousands became some of the poorest in the country – if they weren’t already – and the towns and cities left behind have become a shell of themselves. 19 of the 20 areas with England’s most deprived neighbourhoods are in the north, with Middlesbrough coming in at number one. In 2020, data revealed that the North East has seen the biggest rise in child poverty in all of the UK.

It’s not as though the North East is just unlucky, as Gove & Co. probably see it. The North East has been very specifically placed in this position ever since Thatcher’s war on the mines. 193,000 people lost their jobs by the end of their closure. Villages lost their hearts, and communities changed forever.

During the miners’ strike, families suffered the most, with reports in the papers of the day of mothers leaving their children at council offices, unable to provide for them with no income. The crippling of the industry crippled families, and has had a long-lasting impact still felt by the north today.

That Michael Gove labelled northerners cruel, dirty, and toothless, and boasted that the south stamped on our face is exactly what we’ve come to expect from those with wealth, private education and power. Thatcher taught us what they thought, and it has clearly rubbed off.

Hypocrisy

One thing about Gove’s comments on northerners, though, is its hypocrisy. His party has been begging for the votes of the north for years, with Boris Johnson spending hours touring engineering plants in his hi-vis jacket to appear more ‘relatable’ to us. It worked in Hartlepool and about 45 Northern constituencies at the last election, after all. The more this government pays lip service to the North-South divide, the more the so-called Red Wall will listen. At the end of the day, nobody really has paid any attention to us for a long time here.

So I hope that the Red Wall has been listening to what Michael Gove really thinks. Why? Because we all know it’s not just him who thinks it.

In 1995, Boris Johnson wrote in his Spectator article that working-class men are “likely to be drunk, criminal, aimless, feckless and hopeless”. He thinks the just the same as Michael Gove (who he was at university with) – they’re just smart enough to know where they can pull votes from.

Perceptions of northerners

Most northerners know that a huge portion of the country have negative views on us. Our accents are often a glaring giveaway for prejudice to ensue. People hear us and assume there’s nothing between our ears.

Nothing demonstrates this more than the investigation I worked on almost a year ago into prejudice towards northerners at Durham University, where we are a minority and privilege is the majority. Students testified to so much mocking, bullying, and humiliation that they dropped out, moved home, or stopped attending university commitments.

We may all experience this prejudice at some point; we may all have this feeling that others think we’re inferior – and we aren’t wrong. They do think it.

Michael Gove’s comments may be old, but they are still part of an attitude held widely today that began during Thatcher’s era.

Next time the Tories come to us, charging towards our ‘Red Wall’ in their blue armour, we should remember Gove’s comments and send them packing. We’re better off without them: the proof is in our history.

Previous Post

Dominic Raab is no longer Foreign Secretary

Next Post

Cruella and how she came to power…

Lauren White

Lauren White

Related Posts

Keir Starmer
Politics

Starmer’s message

byJohn Forth-Walker
December 3, 2023
global warming
Education

Climate education must extend beyond the classroom’s walls

byMeryl Batchelder
December 3, 2023
curriculum for the North
Education

A new Curriculum for the North

byPeter Sagar
December 2, 2023
bluebells
Community

1,750 native bulbs and flowers to bring colour and to enhance wellbeing in Kenton

byNorth East Bylines
December 2, 2023
Palestinians and Israelis book by Michael Scott-Baumann
Books

Book review: Palestinians and Israelis

byGiuseppe Bignardi
December 1, 2023
Next Post
"Cruella de Ville signing autographs" by paige_eliz is marked with CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Cruella and how she came to power...

PLEASE SUPPORT OUR CROWDFUNDER

Subscribe to our newsletters
CHOOSE YOUR NEWS
Follow us on social media
CHOOSE YOUR PLATFORMS
Download our app
ALL OF BYLINES IN ONE PLACE
Subscribe to our gazette
CONTRIBUTE TO OUR SUSTAINABILITY
Make a monthly or one-off donation
DONATE NOW
Help us with our hosting costs
SIGN UP TO SITEGROUND
We are always looking for citizen journalists
WRITE FOR US
Volunteer as an editor, in a technical role, or on social media
VOLUNTEER FOR US
Something else?
GET IN TOUCH
Previous slide
Next slide

LATEST

Germany on the map of the world

German Journeys Part 11: The Goethe Institute

December 3, 2023
Keir Starmer

Starmer’s message

December 3, 2023
global warming

Climate education must extend beyond the classroom’s walls

December 3, 2023
National Servicemen Michael Jamieson

Last of the National Servicemen Part 3: Sent to Coventry

December 2, 2023
curriculum for the North

A new Curriculum for the North

December 2, 2023
David Lammy

Lammy’s mood music – sidestepping towards Rejoin?

December 2, 2023

MOST READ

Nestle Fawdon

New buyer for Fawdon Nestlé chocolate site

November 28, 2023
Photo by Fred Duval/Shutterstock.com (YW)

Cleverly and Stockton

November 27, 2023
David Lammy

Lammy’s mood music – sidestepping towards Rejoin?

December 2, 2023
Bollard in Geelong

What news from Geelong? The show goes on with Britishvolt

November 24, 2023 - Updated On November 27, 2023

BROWSE BY TAGS

Audio Beach Brexit Business castle leazes climate activism Co. Durham comedy cost of living crisis Culture defra democracy ducklings Economy Education Environment fire and rescue firefighter Food & Drink food poverty hardwick festival Health Health & Care Home Affairs just stop oil Lifestyle Local Lockdown Northumberland Peace peoples theatre Performance Politics pride month refugee rescue Science Teesside the good life TV & Radio Tynemouth Tyneside Ukraine volunteer Wearside

We are a not-for-profit citizen journalism publication. Our aim is to publish well-written, fact-based articles and opinion pieces on subjects that are of interest to people in the North East and beyond.

North East Bylines is a trading brand of Bylines Network Limited, which is a partner organisation to Byline Times.

Learn more about us

No Result
View All Result
  • About
  • Authors
  • Complaints
  • Contact
  • Donate
  • Letters
  • Privacy
  • Network Map
  • Network RSS Feeds
  • Submission Guidelines

© 2023 North East Bylines. Powerful Citizen Journalism

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • Brexit
    • Education
    • Environment
    • UK News
    • Transport
    • World News
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
    • Culture
    • Music
    • Poetry
  • Business
    • Economy
    • Technology
    • Trade
  • Donate
  • Newsletter sign up
  • Boriiis Cartoons
  • Authors
  • Audio
CROWDFUNDER

© 2023 North East Bylines. Powerful Citizen Journalism

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In