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Michael Gove: not one of the lads

August 4, 2008

Michael Gove, the shadow schools secretary, is not one of the lads. We know this thanks to the Telegraph, which ran a piece on the weekend by Andrew Pierce which reported on Gove’s calls for the likes of Nuts, Zoo and Loaded to consider whether they should “make profits out of revelling in, or encouraging, selfish irresponsibility among young men”. Gove went so far as to say that the so-called ‘lad’s mags’ have helped created a generation of feckless fathers, because they “paint a picture of women as permanently, lasciviously, uncomplicatedly available… The images they use and project reinforce a very narrow conception of beauty and a shallow approach towards women. They celebrate thrill-seeking and instant gratification without ever allowing any thought of responsibility towards others, or commitment, to intrude.”

Blade has conducted his own research into Gove’s views. Responses were diverse:

1. A female friend said that the lad’s mags “are a joke. They always have been and always will be. Men grow out of them, don’t they?”

2. Another female said that Gove was “undoubtedly right”. She feared, however, that society was so far gone that little could be done. Moreover, she cited last night’s Channel 4 programme about two members of the WI embarking on a quest to find the perfect brothel, with a view to establishing one in the UK, as evidence of the old adage – sex sells. “The programme wasn’t serious,” she said, “it veered much too close to titillation. It should have been given the red card.”

3. The electrician, helpfully at Blade Towers on Sunday afternoon to fix the outside light, said that lad’s mags “were just a bit of fun.” He said he had two children and that past exposure to lad’s mags had made no difference at all to his paternal instincts.

4. Blade’s oldest friend, still not a bad athlete even now he is d’un certain age, said: “I bet Michael Gove wasn’t in any of his school teams, except maybe the chess one.” Rather bizarrely, that was his only comment on the matter.

5 . Blade’s newsagent said that he thought the lad’s mags were rubbish but that it was a free country.

What can we deduce from this survey? Not much, for the inadequacies of its methodology are palpable. A bit like the lad’s mags.