The schools crusade that links Michael Gove to Rupert Murdoch
The education secretary has close ties to Rupert Murdoch and would be a key figure if he attempts to move into the UK schools market.
On a freezing November day in 2010, the education secretary, Michael Gove, turned out in east London to inspect a desolate stretch of dockside ground near City airport, where Rupert Murdoch had offered to build an academy school.
The cabinet minister was accompanied by Rebekah Brooks, then News International chief executive, and an entourage of other top Murdoch staff, including James Harding and Will Lewis.
Despite the unprepossessing venue there was no mistaking the company's enthusiasm for the project. Murdoch described himself in a speech as the saviour of British education, thanks to his company's "adoption of new academies here in London".
It was a high-water mark of the love-in between Gove, Murdoch and the Conservative government. Gove, a former Times journalist, had previously gone out of his way to flatter his own proprietor, writing that Murdoch "encourages … free-thinking".
Shortly after the Docklands visit, the phone-hacking scandal disrupted these close relations. News International's proposed academy was quietly abandoned. Newham council says nothing was subsequently done to fulfil Murdoch's promises.
But Gove returned to his pro-Murdoch theme last week, publicly attacking the Leveson inquiry, set up in the wake of News International's misdeeds, as a threat to press freedom. "Whenever anyone sets up a new newspaper – as Rupert Murdoch has with the Sun on Sunday – they should be applauded and not criticised," he said.
It was a reminder of the extraordinarily close links that still exist between publishing tycoon and Tory politician. One of Murdoch's long-term projects is what he calls a "revolutionary and profitable" move by his media companies into online education. Gove would be a key figure in any attempt to penetrate the British schools market.
RenewableCandy wrote:"Whenever anyone sets up a new newspaper – as Rupert Murdoch has with the Sun on Sunday – they should be applauded and not criticised,"
Should have said "Whenever anyone new sets up a newspaper..." Otherwise one person could set up all the papers one by one...oh wait a minute...
I wonder what Levinson will turn up on Gove ?
Is the Sun a newspaper then? I thought it was a comic with a few newsy type items .
RenewableCandy wrote:"Whenever anyone sets up a new newspaper – as Rupert Murdoch has with the Sun on Sunday – they should be applauded and not criticised,"
Obviously he believes in press freedom more than freedom of speech?
I think his son's had to bail out of his position, after the phone-hacking stuff. You kind of wonder how long the rest of them can hang on. The trouble is there are plenty of peple I know who, though totally disgusted with all this, still pay up their sky subs every month
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