JAMES FORSYTH: Dear Sir Humphrey, Please stop churning out pompous, windy letters. Yours sincerely, Michael Gove By James Forsyth Exasperated: Michael Gove has lost his temper with the poor literary skills of his civil servants Every Minister has something they are punctilious about. For Liam Byrne, it was when his coffee was served. For Michael Gove, it is how letters are written. In a memo to Ministers and civil servants in his department earlier this month, the Education Secretary sets out precisely how he wants correspondence drafted. The memo fizzes with frustration at poorly written, standard-issue replies. Gove is not the only one to be infuriated by the quality of the letters drafted in his name. One colleague was horrified to find that a reply he was meant to send to the Prime Minister began: "Good to here from you." Another found his name was being spelt incorrectly. But Gove is surely the only Minister who would urge his staff to read "George Orwell and Evelyn Waugh, Jane Austen and George Eliot, Matthew Parris and Christopher Hitchens" to improve their prose. His memo begins: "Letters should be concise, precise and polite." He stresses that boiler- plate responses will not do and will be sent back. Do not accept general formulaic replies to precise questions. So, when someone asks why the Secretary of State referred to Mr Men in a speech which discussed history, do not send back a standard reply on the national curriculum review, or even the draft history programme of study. Instead, go back to the original speech, check the reference, and provide a full and proper explanation of the reference and the underpinning reasoning for using that reference. He doesn't want Sir Humphrey-esque replies full of long words, either. He warns that "using inflated political rhetoric of the "first may I say how much I care about X" is not polite. It is a time-wasting exercise in self-regarding pomposity. More from James Forsyth... Rather than writing "the policy that we are introducing is intended to drive a change in behaviours on the part of teachers with respect to the poorest and most disadvantaged children and young people," say "the policy will change how teachers behave towards poorer students."" He finishes by setting out "Gove's Golden Rules": If in doubt, cut it out. Read it out loud - if it sounds wrong, don't send it. In letters, adjectives add little, adverbs even less. The more the letter reads like a political speech the less good it is as a letter. Would your mum understand that word, phrase or sentence? Would mine? Read the great writers to improve your own prose - George Orwell and Evelyn Waugh, Jane Austen and George Eliot, Matthew Parris and Christopher Hitchens. Always use concrete words and phrases in preference to abstractions. Gwynne's Grammar is a brief guide to the best writing style. Simon Heffer's Strictly English is a more comprehensive - and very entertaining - companion volume. Our written work should be the clearest, most elegant, and most enjoyable to read of any Whitehall department's because the Department for Education has the best civil servants in Whitehall. Gove's critics say the last point contains a grammatical howler, a superfluous double genitive. Gove has clearly goaded them into looking out for errors. Now he just needs them to start consulting Gwynne's Grammar. Given how much some Ministers and civil servants dislike criticism, Gove would be well advised to read his departmental correspondence very carefully before signing it. He just might find colleagues resistant to a drive to change behaviours. Will May put a stop to stop-and-search? Shift: Theresa May has declared her sympathies with opponents of stop-and-search On Tuesday a Tory Home Secretary will declare that she understands why some communities have issues with the police's use of "stop-and-search" and announce a public consultation on how the policy should be reformed. It will be a dramatic moment and a huge shift in the party's thinking. The Tories have long defended stop-and-search. When William Hague was leader, he lamented the decline in its use following the Macpherson Report. Just five years ago, David Cameron was stressing the need to "free the police to do far more stopping and far more searching." But this consultation shows how keen the Tories are to demonstrate that they understand the concerns of black and ethnic minority voters. Theresa May, left, has long worried about stop-and-search: how it is used and how it affects, in particular, relations between the police and young black men. Last year, she asked Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary to report on how the police use these powers. Their work on this will be published next week. If Mrs May can find a way to ensure that stop- and-search is used in a manner that is both effective and fair, she will have achieved something that will change the nature of policing in Britain. Coalition ready to knock Eds The Coalition is making the political weather and it is raining on Labour. The Tories and Liberal Democrats are more united and both sides are ready to go after Ed Miliband and Ed Balls. The Government has found all the savings it needs to make between now and the next Election and this has been done without anyone resigning in protest. Even Vince Cable - the last Minister to settle - is happy with his deal after the Treasury met him more than halfway in their negotiations. No one inside Downing Street expects the Coalition to break up before 2015. The Liberal Democrats even spent Thursday at an away day in Milton Keynes, where, in the words of one senior party figure, they discussed how "to focus a lot more fire on Labour." That the Lib Dems are choosing to redouble their efforts against Labour is a sign of their commitment to the cause. They aren't interested in playing footsie with an alternative partner at the moment. James Forsyth is political editor of The Spectator