Serial Conservative rebel Philip Davies is unhappy that Michael Gove is "going native" in his eyes focusing too strongly on prisoner rehabilitation rather than punishment. Gove, who annoyed teachers across the country with his right-wing reforms when education secretary, gave a brilliant riposte in parliament: "I'm not sure that members on the opposite benches would agree that I've become a sandal-wearing, muesli-munching vegan vapester… "It's because I'm a Conservative, I believe that evil must be punished. But it's also because I'm a Conservative, and a Christian, that I believe in redemption. And I think the purpose of our prison system is to keep people safe by making people better." But demolishing dirty old prisons that typically foster criminal minds and replacing them with up-to-date facilities that will help re-educate prisoners is a plan that clearly distances him from his predecessor Chris Grayling. Indeed, many Conservative MPs point out that if the Jeremy Corbyn-led Labour opposition was not in the midst of civil war, the government would be badly hurt by the number of policies Gove has overturned.
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