Yacht a lot of fuss

Whoever said that politicians were out of touch with reality? Education minister, Michael Gove, thinks he knows what the British public need to lift their spirits in these harsh economic times – a yacht. Not just any yacht, though. A Royal yacht. This would be a floating palace for the Queen and her family, somewhere for them to relax. All that waving is awfully tiring.

Summer 2012 sees the Queen’s diamond jubilee celebrations, with 60 years on the throne. Anxious that Liz’s big day is not to be outshone by the Olympic Games, Gove wants to present the Queen with “something tangible to commemorate this momentous occasion.” After all, the only thing that could compete with the games would have to be another ridiculous waste of money. Gove is worried about the “transient” nature of the proms, galas and street parties normally held to celebrate such events and wants something with longevity. Gove seems to forget that whilst transient, these events encourage community participation – I can’t see the yacht being made quite so accessible.

Gove estimates the cost of such a useful investment at around £60m, a suggestion that has not gone down well amidst the current cuts. Gove’s own department announced the country’s worst education cuts since the 1950s in October, with spending falling by around 13%, or £300m, over the next few years. The minister has come under huge scrutiny for his suggestions, deemed absurd and offensive in these times of austerity. £60m could finance 2,254 nurses, 2,875 students’ tuition fees at the new higher level, 3 more royal weddings, or of course, one boat inaccessible to the general public.

Of course, Gove denies having ever suggested this would be funded by public money. Private donors will be sought to finance the building of a boat and hopefully, he suggests, provide every schoolchild in the country with a momentum of the jubilee. Forget the textbooks and teachers, this is what every schoolchild needs.

Even if no tax money is to be spent, could this suggestion have been tasteful in any way? As unemployment rises, spending is cut and families feel the pinch more and more, is now the time for such a lavishly ostentatious gift? As the Conservatives continually assure us, “we’re all in this together.” The public outrage has echoed these sentiments, with many people asking how the idea was not dismissed immediately.

Since the emergence of Gove’s letters, leaked to the Guardian, the plans have been transformed to build a ‘university of the seas’, with the ship’s upkeep and running costs paid for students invited to study on board. Whether these plans are feasible are up for debate, but PM David Cameron has provisionally backed the concept on the basis that it is privately funded. The ship will still, of course, be used for royal functions.

It is clear that the nation will not stand for tax payers’ money to be frittered away on non-crucial projects, and by the nation’s response to Gove’s plans they are similarly uneasy about privately financed frivolities. The proposal has been judged to show Gove (and the government’s) lack of identity with the masses, ill-timed as the squeeze on incomes continues – the separation between ‘them’ and ‘us’, the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-yachts’.