Michael Gove is Brexit’s high priest of economic doublethink

The minister wants to risk people’s health to save the economy, while damaging business himself by pushing through our exit from the EU, writes James Moore

Doubleplus ungood: the government’s Orwellian princes of Brexit are fluent in both doublethink and Newspeak (Getty)

When it comes to doublethink, Michael Gove could teach O’Brien, the chief antagonist of George Orwell’s 1984, a thing or two.

One of the high priests of Brexit (which we’ll get to), the Cabinet Office minister spent his weekend muddying the government’s Covid advice by saying: “We want to see more people back at work on the shop floor, in the office, wherever they can be.”

Trouble is, the guidelines hold that if you can work from home you should do so, subject to the needs of the business you work for.