Not everyone’s welcoming Lord Gove of Torry

“I felt that I wanted to take the title particularly in honour of my dad but also in recognition of my parents,” Gove tells old employer the Times today. “I hope that people will recognise that this is born of affection and respect. Torry as a community has been resilient through thick and thin. One of the things I witnessed was the decline in the fishing trade there. I’m paying my respect to somewhere that’s very special.”

Alas, the good folk of Torry are not as honoured as the Spectator editor might hope. That the SNP MP for the area, Stephen Flynn, is ticked off is unsurprising (“Torry is the home of grafters and givers, working people battling for a better future – the very antithesis of the ermine-clad layabouts in the Lords.”).

But others are not amused either. Ishbel Shand, a campaigner with the Save St Fittick’s Park group, which is fighting to save the community’s last green space from being bulldozed, tells the Herald: “My first thought was that this was a belated April Fool’s Day joke in bad taste. A brief glance at social media posts show that folk in Torry are universally scunnered.” 

Another local, Paula Fraser, tells the paper: “Since when have we ever had anyone stand up and help actual Torry people and fight for us? We only ever get someone getting involved when it benefits them.”

Commenters on the website of the local Press & Journal, meanwhile, variously wrote: “WTF Gove of Torry? He has never supported any groups in Torry” and “I thought April Fools Day was past”. Posters on X, meanwhile, were considerably less polite. Perhaps Gove should find somewhere else to do his nightclubbing in future!