Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, today warned that radical social justice activism and identitarianism are causes of major division in British society. Speaking in Westminster this afternoon, Gove went on to explain that he did not, however, like to use the word ‘woke’ to describe these divisions: 

At Right-of-centre think tank Onward’s ‘Future of Conservatism’ event, the minister cited institutions which are both under attack and unsure of their own importance, such as the police, the heritage sector and the education system. “Underlying all these problems,” he said, “is the quest for community and the question of authority.” He pointed to the arguments of Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch, who has compared the identitarian movement to a “new authoritarianism”:

The Onward event was geared towards generating a new agenda for those committed to protecting and celebrating the tradition and national pride behind Conservative thought, and Gove’s keynote speech was directed at those who, in his words, “are concerned by identity trumping ideas and arguments, who see language forever being policed as a thoughtcrime”. He lamented that these people were “derided as ‘culture warriors’”, insisting that “it’s the radical social change activists who want to identify and magnify divisions; they’re the people who want to tear down and transform, who demand repentance and self-abasement. Where they bring discord, I want to see harmony.”

Gove, who has previously held Cabinet positions at Education and Justice, argued:

A portion of his speech was devoted to giving an overview of the history of the radical Left, and how its advocates had shifted their focus from the emancipation of the working class to the championing of marginalised identity groups, as a consequence of the “collapse of state socialism” and the “spread of prosperity across the Western world”. The aim behind calls to decolonise curricula and museums is “to delegitimise nationhood and national loyalties,” Gove said, “to make any traditions or affections seem acts of aggression, to uproot the settled and familiar and to make way for a brave new world.” Considering the attractions and pitfalls of this worldview, he claimed:

By way of a solution Gove suggested, with reference to the debate around gender self-identification, that “we need to develop a response which is both sophisticated and robust, nuanced but authoritative. We need to be clear about an objective scientific truth in human biology. Emotion can’t change your chromosomes.”

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is UnHerd’s Deputy Editor, Newsroom.

RobLownie

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