I am unsure whether Mr Gove is just dense, or, more likely, has a vested interest in pedling this nonsense, even though he knows it is utter trash.
The reason why private schools have better results than state schools, and a far high level of extra-curricular activities is obvious to anyone who knows anything about the education system - money (surprise!)
Private schools, by definition, have a parantal group who have the financial ability to educate their children privately, and the wish for them to be educated to a higher standard than can be offered by state education.
Add to that the ability of private schools to accept or deny pupils on accademic ability - a factor denied to state schools - and you have an upper strata of ability, backed by parental finance which will fund any and all extr-curicular activites, and you have a two-tier system.
I am prepared to accept that any parents with the will and the finance will lift their child out of 'bog standard' education - I am not prepared to accept Mr Gove's assertion that there is no reason why the two systems cannot be as good as each other - when it is patently obvious why they are not as good - and that they never can or will be - certainly not because he says so, as though that makes it possible.
The lack of discipline in state schools is a popular stick to beat parents and teachers with - but it is more complex than something that needs the 'haircut and two years in the army' approach beloved by people who left school fifty years ago.
Society contains two, and approaching three generations of parents with no real parenting skills, because notions like self-respect and caring have gradually been eroded from school environments by a succession of governmental interference which refuses to see education in a wider contect than targets and meaningless futile comparisons with other nations and cultures.
If you tell teachers they are rubbish often enough, and for long enough, you will make them believe you, so why would any graduate want to place themselves in a system that lacks support, equipment, a meaningful ethos, and parental backing, in order to build an education system that teaches children above all else to value and care for themselves and each other.
If Mr Gove really wants to fix education, and that is actually his job - he needs to get the politics out of the way, stop grandstanding with meaningless and unataimable fantasy futures, and start to put money into nursery and pre-school education, where values and care can be taught from an early age, instead of trying Dickensian regimes to fix attitudes that formed in early childhood.
To return to AOG's question - "Will we now see a return of discipline, along with an academic improvement to our schools, now that the 'liberal left' influence has been removed from the head of Ofsted?"
No, because the politics of the head of Ofsted is not the issue - the problem is wider and deeper than that, and Mr Gove's nonsensical pootering proves just how out-of-touch he, and his government, really are.