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Michael Gove is a Scottish journalist, author and retired politician who served in various Cabinet positions under David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak. He was member of parliament (MP) for Surrey Heath from 2005 to 2024.
Gove is generally considered as combining socially liberal views—for example, on gay marriage[1]—with a harder Eurosceptic and neoconservative position on foreign affairs.[2] He has expressed his view that the state should generally not interfere in domestic affairs and has campaigned for economic freedom in certain matters. Gove has argued that "the only sustainable ethical foundation for society is a belief in the innate worth and dignity of every individual."[3]
In remarks prepared for the 2020 Ditchley Lecture, Gove portrayed what he saw as the malaise of modern society as leading to populism, because the non-intellectual classes "chose to opt for polarised identity politics rather than stay with broad-based national political movements" instead of choosing to follow the politics of diversity, inclusion and identity politics they were force-fed by the elites. He praised Franklin D. Roosevelt as a model for his renewal of capitalism and he imagined the construction of inclusive societies with the deconstruction of Whitehall. Gove stressed "basic writing, meeting chairing and time management skills" for all policy civil servants. He ended with a paean to his purpose in public service: "to tackle inequality".[4][5]