Last week you could hardly keep Scottish Conservative MSP Douglas Lumsden out of the papers. Since no one had heard of him, Douglas thought he could generate a spot of publicity by manufacturing some outrage over some decades-old offensive tweets sent by the comedian Janey Godley.

In Douglas's view, these tweets meant that Janey was not a fit person to appear in a panto in Aberdeen, and Douglas wrote to the theatre to tell them as much seeing as how he had little better to do with his time. After all, he's a Scottish Tory list MSP, it's not as if he fulfills any useful purpose.  

Janey's tweets were indeed offensive and beyond the pale. She immediately made a full and sincere apology and took full responsibility for her old comment.

Now, some recordings of decades-old remarks made by Michael Gove at the Cambridge Union have come to light. The remarks heard on recordings released by The Independent are gobsmackingly offensive. Gove used a racist term of abuse, and not to be outdone, made comments that were sexist, homophobic and made light of child abuse.

The recording also has him being sneeringly contemptuous of the travails of working-class people in the north of the UK and he mocks the harm wrought on working-class communities by the Thatcher government. It's probably the only time that Michael Gove has spoken honestly and with conviction.

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