There is a lot that annoys this writer about the ideological steamroller that is the Coalition government's Department for Education but I am aware that quite a lot of the electorate - generally those outside education - seem to quite like Mr Gove. When I see the guy on TV, I reluctantly accept that he seems to come across as pretty genuine.
So I'm pretty disappointed to discover that, despite all the rhetoric, Michael Gove is as manipulative and disingenuous as the rest of the political world. And how do I reach this conclusion? It was a brief news item last week when it was reported that Mr Gove and his department had been using their personal email accounts rather than the DfE's because, that way, they would avoid Freedom of Information (FOI) enquiries.
The DfE did not deny that this was going on but merely said that they were not acting illegally. Now, this may be the case - there is no law to say that you have to use the company email account but there IS a very strong DfE policy that personal email accounts must not be used because, to do so, compromises security.
In the years I have been inspecting, the importance of not using personal accounts has been driven home again and again and there is an online training course that gets wheeled out every couple of years. This is focused on secure practice and safeguarding of information. It covers a lot of stuff, like why you should not go to sleep on the train with your laptop open. It also makes it quite clear that, for people who work for the government or a government agency, they should absolutely not use their personal email account. It is assessed and, passing it is an expectation for all inspectors - and all DfE staff.
But not, it seems, for Mr Gove.
What has the man got to hide?
