Michael Gove is now standing

That's brilliant bags!

Tell you what, if I was walking up the stairs at the same time as Gove, I'd ask him to go in front in case he stabbed me in the back. What a snake. He didn't even tell Boris what he was going to do. The first time Boris heard that his campaign manager was going to stand himself was when Gove made his announcement. Gove and Vine. Pair of snakes in the grass.

May would get my vote.

DH thinks perhaps they've got some serious dirt on Boris and he was blackmailed to stand down?! Perhaps that is true.

But I also think it is about money- he earns mcuh better money writing columns for newspapers and doing the lecture/conference circuits. Or a mixture of both.

Does anyone think Boris ever really believed in Brexit, or even wanted it? Frankly, I don't think he ever had a plan, and his column in the Telegraph which supposedly outlined his strategy was very lukewarm about it, considering that his side had just won. Apparently his backers on the Tory right wing were alarmed and he has been ditched. I've always assumed Boris was just in the whole thing for personal ambition. Looks like he miscalculated - maybe trusting Gove was his biggest mistake.

So we'll end up in an isolated country, possibly facing a recession, and probably be led by Theresa May. God help us all.

Terrible JessM,absolutely shocking,stories like yours are from real people in real situations,shame no one listens ?

gj the first thing I thought of was Gove has something on Boris. Maybe Cameron and Osborne know what it is too, maybe not. Remember Boris has been sacked twice for lying.

I think he did fancy being PM, but he never thought Leave would win the referendum so he had no plans. I think Boris just wants everyone to like him and says whatever he has to say to avoid conflict.

Anyone see Teresa May's speech? Bit flabbergasted. Effectively said she's not the type to do tv interviews and lunches and gets on with the work in front of her. Shouldn't she be working in the Civil Service then? Think if she gets the P.M. job she'll be doing a bit of that don't you. How embarrassing. Big NATO summit, someone says 'Teresa sends her apologies. She's got a big pile of paperwork'. Wondering if I'll wake up and find it's all been some weird dream. What strange times.

Eirel Scooter58 hi it was indeed a tragic waste. Takes years of slog to turn a school around - and it's a team effort. His hidden agenda would seem to be to undermine the state sector so that all schools act (either individually or in federations) as competing market units that can sink or swim alone and by-the-by give a boost to the private sector.
As to May - I did post a few weeks ago that she was hiding in the girl's toilet while the boys had a nasty eye-gouging fight in the corridors. (allowing myself a smug moment for reading that right).
I don't think we have any idea what she is like as she has kept a low profile, presumably concentrating instead on playing a very clever game in the corridors of power. There were lamentably few women at the top of Cameron's team, as we all know. She did not get where she is by being a good girl and doing her homework. So will the real Teresa May come out now and run a few assemblies and give the rest of us an idea of what kind of head girl she would make?

alig99 and Bluecat

I think Boris believed Brexit. But I think he was a bit conflicted.
Also, he is so good at debating, that he could equally have debated it the other way.

He doesnt do detail well,not his idea of fun, so he would have struggled being PM in the Brexit world. Not that that is the be all and end all of the job.

alig99 Personally, I dont think personal feelings can properly go out of things[sounds like a narcissist situation]. Which is why I do not favour Teresa May[though I am running out of alternatives].

Michael Gove reminds me so much of someone but I'm blessed if I can think who. His plump face and benign look is so familiar.
The nearest I can come to is Pooh Bear and as we all know he is a bear " of very little brain". He always looks slightly befuddled but if the way I communicated with my spouse was by e-mail perhaps I would too.

I thought i had posted but can't see my post so apologies if this is a duplicate. As Education Minister Gove alienated teachers so much, he had to be moved. Now as Justice minister, the prison officers hate him. How good for the UK would he be negotiating with the EU.

Annsixty watching him on TV last night we thought he actually looked like a Spitting Image puppet of himself. He is most unprepossessing. May is a bit like a scary head teacher. Noted the tartan trouser suit btw!

The police hate Theresa May I believe....

It is quite extraordinary. By his own admission he has not got the character or inclination to lead the country. He is on record as saying it a number of times. So what's changed Gove?

missislippy You employ the usual meaningless insults by describing Corbyn as a "snivelling little weasel" but heap praise on Gove for sorting out "the bloody teaching unions". As JessM's account demonstrates, his inability to listen to anybody but himself has wreaked havoc in our education system.

Why Liam Fox is hauled out every so often on the TV to give his opinions and is now being put forward as a possible leader of the Conservatives beats me. This is the man who was forced to resign as Defence Secretary for breaking the ministerial code - taking his best friend Adam Werritty to Whitehall meetings and on 18 foreign trips, despite him having no official role and no security clearance.

As for Boris Johnson, I agree with those who think he jumped on the Leave bandwagon because he didn't think it would be successful but would give him more chance of winning the leadership. I don't suppose he fancies taking on the enormous responsibility of negotiating us out of the EU, with all its attendant difficulties. Apart from shouting vote for Independence Day at the end, his contribution to the EU debate was, in my opinion, garbled and inept.

Theresa May presided over the passport fiasco where, because of staff cuts she initiated, hundreds of thousands of people were unable to renew their passports. She introduced the policy whereby British citizens wishing to bring their non-EU spouses to this country have to earn a minimum salary of £18,600 - a level which would not be met by around 47% of the working British population. There are also questions regarding possible conflicts of interest and G4S.

On the face of it, I thought Andrea Leadsom came across well in the debate but she is a dyed-in-the-wool Conservative, consistently voting for measures that impact on the poor - like raising VAT, cutting disability and other benefits - whilst voting against raising taxes on the better off. Her voting record also shows some rather strange inconsistencies - voting for an EU referendum and yet voting for further EU integration.

When May was speaking yesterday I waited for her to say 'sit up , shoulders back and uncross your legs'

Why is nobody giving Theresa May credit for grtting the Modern Slavery Act passed last year. A world standard piece of important legislation.

Don't know.

Incompetent as Ed. Sec., Lied during Ref. Debate; is too prissy and mannered to be PM.
Also,if you get Gove, you get Sarah Vine!

Twitter from Sarah Vine (or Sarah Vain as Private Eye called her);

She described the result as “terrifying”, not because of the implications for Britain, but because of what it meant for Mr and Mrs Gove; the political responsibility she suddenly believed rested on her own shoulders.

“Given Michael’s high-profile role in the Leave campaign,” she wrote, “that means he — we — are now charged with implementing the instructions of 17 million people. And that is an awesome responsibility.”

She continued: “I felt as though I had fallen through a rabbit hole — lost in a strange land where nothing made sense any more. This was absolutely, categorically not meant to happen. David Cameron was not supposed to go. This was not what this referendum was about; that was not why Michael backed Leave.

He backed leave because he thought it would lose.

God almighty what is happening to this poor country?

The insane have taken over the asylum

She should remember what happened to Lady Macbeth.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/mar/24/the-knives-are-out-sarah-vine-and-jay-rayner-clash-on-twitter-over-kitchens

It's a shame she didn't fall through a real rabbit hole - a ruddy deep one. She seems to think she's standing on the same ticket as her other half. Buy one **, get one free. Insert appropriate word according to your political leanings.

I'm amused by Kitchengate. Vine's sneering at the Milliband's "forlorn little kitchen" and her comparing Justine Milliband to Mr Spock were very low blows. I'm glad they've come back to bite her on the bum.

Didn't the kitchen in question turn out to be their 'second' kitchen - the main one being very grand!