Jan 212011
Quote of the day (so far) from Simon Jenkins in the Guardian:
Tories have always liked facts – dates, places, weights and measures ‚Äî because they brook no argument from sceptics and leftwingers. They are “academic”, intellectual authority on stilts. But history’s facts are deliciously dangerous. Set them going and they race to conclusions. That is why a history lesson for ministers might be a lesson of advantage to us all.
I recommend the rest of the article too. It’s good
Please note, Michael Gove.
3 Responses to “Why Tories like facts”
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It’s a fantastic article.
Simon Jenkins is probably the most unpredictable journalist working in Britain today. He can be brilliant or absolutely awful. This is in the former category.
Gove’s empirical evidence for his recommendations is laughable – e.g. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg studied classical Greek so, by Gove’s logic, the more people study the Classics, the more dot com billionaires we’ll have. I mean, it’s just asinine…
Howard .. i want to echo you … Gove is just asinine.
@Howard
Bang on. Jenkins can be a funny stick, alright. I always read his column and they’re very hit and miss but this was bang on (as are all his columns on the ‘war’ in Afghanistan).