It’s a mystery that he’s still in his job. It’s fair to say that most teachers hate Gove. It’s even fair to say that most teachers have no intention of voting for the Conservative party at forthcoming elections. Communications from my union indicate that teacher morale is low, low, low.

But let’s not be fooled into thinking that this is about personalities. Things would not be any better with a different education secretary, including one from the Labour party. The various weasels in the Shadow Cabinet are too busy pandering to the Daily Mail to listen to teachers. Sure, I hate Gove too. He’s a snivelling weasel of a man from whose lips lies drip like pus. But the fact that he’s still in his role in spite of his various underhand practices, and the scandals already attached to his so-called Free Schools policy, and the corruption and dishonesty attached to academy chains and their links to OFSTED contractors; the fact that he’s still in post in spite of all that shows that he is only doing what he has been tasked to do. In the eyes of the Prime Minister and his brutal  and destructive minority government, Gove is doing all right.

It’s ironic that, having voted for “no overall control”, the British electorate seem to have ended up with a government of wild-eyed ideologues whose macho posturing and determination not to compromise seems more extreme than the Thatcher government of 1979.

The damage being done to state education is deliberate and systematic. Into the vacuum left by the current bulldozing of exams and Maoist permanent revolution will step the freeloading private sector, with its cost-cutting and profit-skimming greed. That teachers are unhappy and leaving the profession is all part of the plan. As I’ve said before, we’re being deprofessionalised.

It’s already happening. Applied for a mortgage lately? Lenders no longer see teaching as one of the professions, and nor do insurers. It’s been happening in the USA, and it’s happening in the UK. Yeah, the more they talk about professional standards (Labour, too), the further they are from treating teachers as professionals. Everything’s the opposite of what it is.

How can they get away with this? They don’t care that teachers might not vote Tory – because they know they probably won’t vote at all. They also know that the voting system is so rigged with rotten boroughs that only the marginals matter. Democracy can’t help you now, especially if you vote Labour.

So don’t waste your energy hating Gove. Getting rid of him won’t help. Support your union, they’re your best hope. This weasel government has u-turned at least 45 times since 2010. They’re not strong, they’re weak: hence the macho posturing. If teachers stood up, as one, and brought the fucking country to a halt, we would win. And why we don’t do that is the greatest mystery of all.