Brexit: Be more patriotic about cheese, says Michael Gove

BBC News wins our Headline of the Day Award, but that's not important right now.

Nick Cohen once warned us against politicians who started out as journalists and against two of them in particular:

Johnson and Gove are the worst journalist politicians you can imagine: pundits who have prospered by treating public life as a game. Here is how they play it. They grab media attention by blaring out a big, dramatic thought. An institution is failing? Close it. A public figure blunders? Sack him. 

They move from journalism to politics, but carry on as before. When presented with a bureaucratic EU that sends us too many immigrants, they say the answer is simple, as media answers must be. Leave. Now. Then all will be well. 

Johnson and Gove carried with them a second feature of unscrupulous journalism: the contempt for practical questions. Never has a revolution in Britain’s position in the world been advocated with such carelessness. The Leave campaign has no plan.

Another feature of the Johnson and Grove school of journalism is that consistency is not important. All that matters is turning out good copy by your next deadline.

So Gove, after presenting himself as the champion of rigour in education, announced that "people in this country have had enough of experts".

After presenting himself as Boris Johnson's loyal lieutenant, he stabbed him where it hurts and ran for the leadership himself.

And after this:

The UK would still be able to trade freely within Europe even if it left the EU, Michael Gove has said. 

The justice secretary said the UK could be part of Europe's free trade area to avoid trade tariffs, even if it was not a member of the EU single market.

Michael Gove presents himself as the champion of patriotism in cheese purchasing.

Whether he is acting as a journalist or a cabinet minister, all that matters to Gove is tomorrow's headline.