But Are You Experienced?

It may be a bit previous to call for Michael Gove's resignation over the school building programme list fiasco.

But Gove would be as well to locate the slim vestige of humility he may still possess, if he is to learn anything from this unneccessarily embarrassing episode.

The original route of this idiotic cock-up was Gove's determination to proceed wth his purely ideologically 'free' school initiative. In order to release the necessary funds, he had to first cancel large parts of the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme this side of recess, in order to have some flagship free schools in place for September term. A lawyer might call such huge shifting of resources in a period of a few weeks as "precipitative haste."

But that had no influence over Gove's amateurish and shambolic release of information cancelling hundreds of vital school building projects. His entirely inept performance would have shamed a sixth-form debater let alone a Secretary of State.

Speaker Bercow allowed Gove to run way beyond his usual time allowance of ten minutes. His statement was delivered with the usual Aberdonian briskness but was all outlandish rhetoric where measured tones would have been more apt. But on the list of schools affected, he omitted to deploy the vital phrase, "and copies are available from the Vote Office." Because they weren't.

First Speaker slapped Gove across the chops for not answering questions, "he's not supposed to be reading out a previously written script." He underlined the seriousness of Gove's misdemenour calling it, "unprecedented."

Mikey said, yeah thanks, but took no heed and carried on banging on about "scandalous" Labour waste, yadda, yadda. Mr Speaker then metaphorically held him against the wall saying, "Let me say to the Secretary of State, the assurance of his gratitude is of no interest to me; adhering to my ruling is."

Members then naturally probed him for news of their own constituencies. Gove had plenty of detail at his fingertips and wasted considerable Parliamentary time effectively reading them out one-by one. He then conceded he would write to every local authority and each Member. His Private Office must have exploded at the prospect of drafting 750 odd letters.

The dusky Caroline Flint was able to scoff at Gove's hapless handling when she said simply, "it would have been better to have provided that information, before the debate rather than during it." The effect was Gove casually divulging dramatic and devastating news to one community after another, like he was flicking peas off a table.

When it was finally over, which Mr Speaker described as, "an unwieldy process, to put it mildly," it emerged, via Ed Balls, that the elusive list had been circulated to the media prior to the debate. Members were now beside themsleves and even Speaker called it, "rank discourtesy." The car crash continued; Gove failed to take responsibility and said he didn't know if Balls was right even though precise timings were provided.

Speaker had to throttle Gove again reminding him he had Ministerial responsibility and ignorance could be no defence, "the Secretary of State should be aware". It was getting toe-curling now and could not possibly get worse could it?

But once MPs began verifying details of the cuts, they found a huge number of inconsistencies - in Sandwell in the West Midlands, nine school building projects which appeared to have been saved were actually for the chop after all.

But despite this comedy of errors, Gove was the very picture of arrogance on Newsnight and showed not an ounce of chagrin about his school boy handling of the cancellation of £55Bn worth of school building.

Even after he was compelled to apologise in the most abject terms on Wednesday, what was still missing, as Glenda Jackson said in the House, was, "any concern at all for the future of our children."