After Philip Hammond’s assault on “the war on motorists”, to be carried out by creating bigger traffic jams, further evidence emerges that the organising principle of the coalition is government by vaguely remembered newspaper scare stories.

Here’s an astonishingly servile interview with Michael Gove:

"Teachers worry that if they assert a degree of discipline, one determined maverick pupil will say 'I know my rights' and so teachers become reticent about asserting themselves. There are a number of schools that have 'no touch' policies and we are going to make clear this rule does not apply..."
I don't believe you should be able to hit children, but I do believe that teachers need to know they can physically restrain children, they can interpose themselves between two children that may be causing trouble, and they can remove them from the classroom. The important thing is that teachers know they are in control, and this department and the justice system will back them."...
Teachers should be able to console all victims of bullying, he said, adding wryly: "Teachers should not have to think youths have to wear hoodies before they can comfort them." Rules constraining teachers from comforting a crying child added to a culture that deterred male teachers working in primary schools, Gove said.

“I know my rights.” Jesus wept. What next? “Gove acts on tourist kidney thefts”. “Gove acts on the slanket menace.” “Gove acts on how difficult those new light bulbs are”. I wouldn’t rule that last one out. “Osborne launches task force to find out what happened to Sodastreams.” “Fox launches task force to invade Muslim no-go areas in Surrey.”

“Fox launches task force to destroy Osborne.” That’s more like it.

The really worrying thing here, however, is this: <blockquote>“I love A Journey, I have never read a book like it,” the education secretary says of Tony Blair’s bestselling memoirs.</blockquote>

Update: Even more.