Appearing on the new BBC Radio 4 series Surviving Politics with Michael Gove, Humza Yousaf revealed that his host had become a verb among Scottish Government ministers.

Before Boris Johnson became Prime Minister, Scottish Government and UK ministers would contact each other directly with any queries. Oiled the wheels of government and all that.

Under Johnson the system changed. Henceforth, explained the former First Minister, everything had to go through Michael Gove. It was as if Gove, being Scottish, and a tricky customer to boot, was the only one Boris trusted to keep those rebellious Scots from his door.

So Scottish Government ministers would subsequently be told by civil servants that they had been “Goved”, which was fine by Humza because the two men got on.

Another meaning has emerged recently, prompted by the new show/podcast. Now, “to be Goved” means to be goaded into a rage on hearing that the jammy former Conservative cabinet minister has landed another plum job.

First he was appointed editor of the Spectator. That was irritating enough to Gove’s enemies. But now he has only gone and taken the BBC’s shilling. Since the BBC is funded by the licence fee that means you and me are now paying his wages. Nobody asked if we wanted to, and ultimately we can be jailed if we withhold payment in protest (and fail to pay the court fines).

A fair few people are unhappy about this and have taken to social media to complain. Others waited till they had heard the first episode, a sit-down with Peter Mandelson, and then became apoplectic. What tipped the balance was Gove complaining about people being snarky about his wife, the journalist Sarah Vine, after she sent an email about Gove’s job manoeuvrings to the wrong address and it was leaked to the media. Today such a fox’s paw would be called “doing a Kuenssberg”, but back then (2016) we were all too busy laughing to coin new phrases.

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Well, aren’t we ashamed now we have been told the episode caused much hurt and embarrassment? I’m sure it did. Yet as many have pointed out, throughout a long career as a columnist Vine has written hurtful things about others. So it seems more than a tad hypocritical for Gove to cry foul when she is the one on the receiving end of the custard pie. Gove is fond of saying that “no one is a conscript” in politics. The same is true for journalism, as he well knows.

In his defence, Gove was a good journalist and a likeable pup. Talk to people who worked with him in newspapers and television and they will have fond memories of the young Gove. Funny and smart, he was not an unpleasant chancer like Boris Johnson.

Fast forward and add to Gove’s CV all those years at Westminster, and he would seem the ideal candidate to have his own radio show about politics. So why complain? In part, it is because Gove is the latest in a line of former MPs to swan into a job on the telly, a position that affords almost as many privileges as being an MP (see the Balls-Cooper trip to see Taylor Swift).

Michael Portillo reinvented himself courtesy of a telly job, going from odious Thatcherite to cuddly, brightly trousered travel guide. Penny Mordaunt will surely be next to be offered a show. Those sword-carrying skills of hers cannot be lost to the nation.

There is perhaps another reason why Gove’s programme has not landed so well: it is the latest in a very long line of podcasts. Technically it is a broadcast since it goes out on the radio at a set time, but essentially it is another podcast, available whenever you want to listen via the internet (BBC Sounds).

You might think there are enough podcasts out there already, particularly of the politics kind. News that younger audiences are keen on them has flooded the market further, as have the rumoured salaries of the star hosts. No mention of The Rest is Politics with Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart is complete without the claim that they make a million a year each.

No wonder it is boom time in podcast town. As if to prove it is the new rock and roll/weight loss jab, The Rest is Politics has just finished a UK tour of arenas that included the SEC in Glasgow.

Yet we know what usually follows a boom. Might Gove be the nudge that compels listeners to throw open their windows and declare they are bored as hell with all these podcasts and they are not going to take any more?

I don’t doubt there is a market for politics as a branch of show business. Anyone who had the good fortune to attend one of Tony Benn’s stage shows will know that. I went to a lunchtime session in Glasgow that didn’t finish till it was time for dinner, such was the number of people wanting to ask questions. Look at the demand for tickets at Edinburgh this year for politically-themed interviews (that then became podcasts).

Is it a coincidence that podcasts flourished during a time of political chaos and uncertainty? If so, what is their role in quieter yet potentially more dangerous times? Are they merely one part of the political elite speaking to another, telling them things they want to hear? As such, are they widening divides in society, making us even more a country of information haves and have-nots? Someone should make a podcast about podcasts. Oh wait, they already have.

Having listened to two of five episodes in Gove’s series, I am confident we haven’t heard the last of him, whatever the outcry on social media about his programme/podcast. Next time, however, it might be more illuminating for Gove to interview one of those so-called “ordinary people” whose life was affected directly by his political choices. A small businessman on Brexit, say, or a teacher. I’d listen to that. I’ll start pitching the idea now amigos, back to you asap.