Dominic Lawson joins the dark side

Dominic Lawson's article in The Independent is a rehash of government
propaganda against the public sector.

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/dominic-lawson/dominic-lawson-it-is-the-haves-going-on-strike-not-the-havenots-6269308.html

I wrote the following to d.lawson@independent.co.uk
You might like to give him your two penn'orth as well :)

I expected the Independent to go one better than the tabloid "gold
plated pensions" and "selfish striking scum". You are a disappointment.

As you very well know the government is attacking all pensions and
benefits - except of course the bonuses paid to deserving bankers, the
50 percent pay rises for top executives and Francis Maude's
astronomical pension!

You seem to think that a contract between an employer and an employee
can be torn up. Everybody in my profession agreed to accept less pay
in return for a good pension. Then forty years down the line people
like you can laugh at us and say "and you wont get the pension either
sucker!"

God Bless

New Blog for Horsham Ironing

This morning I set up a blog for Mandy at ARK who has an ironing business. Later on we will be setting up websites using wordpress. And tomorrow the world :) 

http://ironinghorsham.blogspot.com

Good King Wenceslas in reverse.

The government has quietly cut the winter fuel allowance to old age pensioners.

George Osborne secretly cut the winter fuel allowance, paid to most people who are 60 or older. However the information did not form part of the 100+-page Budget document.

This news comes just weeks after all the Big Six power firms hiked the price of gas and electricity, with more  predicted for autumn.

Most of those aged 60-79 will get £200 instead of last year's £250 when the payment is made in November or December. Those who are 80 or older will get £300 instead of £400.

The government bewail the fact that people are living longer and they cite this as a pretext for cutting pensions. Well cutting the winter fuel allowance is a good way to make sure they die soon enough.

Merry Christmas Millionaire Osborne - don't get cold now.

Scroogle? Google? Poodle?

http://www.scroogle.org/scraper.html
Scroogle is a way of bypassing Google. When you use Google they
bombard you with adverts and nick all sorts of information about your
habits for the benefit of advertisers.
http://www.scroogle.org/scraper.html puts a stop to all that but still
lets you use a search engine....until the dirty tricks department at
google have their wicked way with them!
Good old Scroogle. It's not humbug.

Sack the slackers!

The latest improvement to all our lives proposed to the government by the one-man think tank Adrian Beecroft is that employers have the right to 'sack the slackers' as the Daily Telegrapb impartially put it. The idea is that employers do not have to have any reason to sack you, if they think you are slacking then out you go.

As you know this is exactly what happens in firms where there is no union but Beecroft imagines a world in which this applies to everyone. A bit like ancient Egypt in fact.

And who is Beecroft? Well he has certainly purchased the right to influence government policy. He paid 530000 into Tory party finds.

But where did he come by money like that? Well it seems Beecroft is a very kind man. If you are strapped for cash your uncle Adrian will slip you 100. Of course everything has got a little price.

In thirty days the boys will be round to collect 136.72. That is an APR of 4394 percent. And no I haven't left out a decimal point there.

And if one of his employees fails to put the screws on his victims? Well they are obviously a slacker and off they go!

Our gold-plated pensions

Public sector pensions are gold-plated. You have only to read the Daily Mail or the Express to know that. A pity this image will not be appearing in your bank account any time soon. The average teacher pension is 10000.

However, there are exceptions to the rule of public sector pensions.Margaret Thatcher has received 535,000 for ex-PM duties from a little fund - well obviously a rather large fund - called the public duties cost allowance. Major and Blair have also had very nice golden handshakes (Major 490K and Blair 169K) from this fund. Remember that when some government minister tells you the nation
cannot afford your pension.

We're worth it!

The government is not at all sure it can afford the scheduled CPI-based increases to pensions - about five percent. However you can rest assured we are 'all in it together' ... except the bosses of major corporations who have received ten times that increase in remuneration. Apparently this is quite fair because they decide their own remuneration and they think they are worth an average of 2.7 million per annum.

The leadership of Unite has correctly branded this as "obscene" but Len McLusky's solution is to give greater power to shareholders to curb directors' pay. One can't help wondering why a trade union leader isn's saying "what about the workers?" It is no use for union leaders to stop short in pious trepidation before the power of big business. The workers in these corporations could give you a very accurate picture of how much use these directors are and whether they should be given house-room let alone a salary.

It does however suggest a very simple solution to the pension crisis. Let pensioners award themselves a 50 percent increase - because we're worth it!

Derek McMillan

My message to Frankie Maude

I have asked for an appointment on 26 October but have not so far
received a reply. As a matter of courtesy, the questions to which I
would like an answer are these:

1) Can you explain what has happened to the cast iron guarantee that
"We will restore the earnings link for the basic state pension from
April 2011, with a ?triple guarantee? that pensions are raised by the
higher of earnings, prices or 2.5%."

2) What does the government plan to do to pensions in 2012? Will the
link to increases in the cost of living even exist or will pensioners
be made to pay for the bankers' crisis?

3) Is it likely that the current policy towards teachers' pensions
will lead to a problem of recruitment in state schools?

4) How will it impact the public schools to which government ministers
send their children?

Youth unemployment

Conference notes the record levels of youth unemployment in the UK.
This is likely to have an effect of demotivating pupils. Many do not
see the point in working hard at school when they are more likely to
end up unemployed than otherwise.

We believe that the riots in the UK were a purely negative reaction to
the apparently hopeless situation young people find themselves in.
They show how dangerous the government policy of cutting welfare and
cutting jobs has been for the social fabric of the country.

We welcome the initiatives of Youth Fight for Jobs such as the Jarrow
crusade in 2011. We support this approach as a way of getting a
positive message to the young unemployed and to school pupils that
there is an alternative to demoralisation and an alternative to the
political system which has failed them so badly.

The Ark - new weblog

The Ark has a new blog. Its address is http://thearkhorsham.blogspot.com/

It can accept pictures and text. If you have something to say about
Ark just email it to derekmcmillan1951(at)yahoo.co.uk or to
lisa(at)thearkhorsham.org.uk and it can be forwarded to the blog at
the speed of light.

It has contact details for the Ark for those who want to help.

I do not have control over the content but if I can keep the spam at
bay I will be happy. This is something practical I was able to do for
Ark and I am feeling altogether too pleased with myself!

October 26 - March route confirmed

Join the Joint Union March and Lobby:
ASSEMBLE at midday, Victoria Gardens,Westminster, SW1;
MARCH to the Dept. of Education to hand in the mass petition.

All of the main teaching unions - ASCL, ATL, NAHT, NASUWT, NUT, UCAC
and UCU are backing this joint march & lobby on Wednesday October 26.
Every school is being asked to try and send at least one
representative to give Government a final warning - back off or face
the consequences.

The march gives us a chance to dust off the flags and banners from
June 30 once more. Media coverage of the event will be a timely
reminder to union members that are balloting to return their 'YES'
vote for action as well!

SIGN THE PETITION !
Even if you can't make it to London in half-term, make sure everyone
in your school signs the mass petition. More details on:
www.decentpensions.org.uk

Maude the Pension Pilferer

Maggie Thatcher was Maggie the Milk Snatcher - a byword for Tory
penny-pinching cruelty. Francis Maude will go down in history as Maude
the Pension Pilferer. If we let him get away with it.

The government has already reneged on a solemn and binding undertaking
(and such things are two a penny with politicians) to link pensions to
increases in the cost of living. By sleight of hand they have invented
a brand new measure of the cost of living and !surprise! it comes up
with a lower figure than the retail price index. Far from sympathising
with the pensioners the privileged and pampered politicians are
pinching their pennies.

The government has refused to negotiate in good faith with the public
sector unions. They behave as though attacking the unions were more
important than making a grown-up decision over public sector pensions.

All of the teacher unions are acting together to lobby parliament on
26th October. This is where Maude's union bashing has got him. Firstly
the ATL, most inoffensive and moderate of unions, has taken strike
action for the first time. Now the Secondary Head's union ACSL is on
the march. And if the Tory Party cannot depend on the ACSL they cannot
depend on anybody.

Maude should stop pretending to be a reincarnation of the blessed
Margaret and remember her ignominious defeat over the Poll Tax. It is
a pity the Labour leaders are so weak and willing because the Con
Dem's wouldn't last five minutes against a half-decent opposition.
Instead we have Ed the strike-breaker and a load of Balls about
supporting cuts from the shadowy Chancellor.

Trade Unions deserve better representation than Labour can provide -
we need a new workers' party.

Lobby MPs over pensions

At their meeting on 25 September the West Sussex Teachers Association
Executive agreed to support the lobby of Parliament on Wednesday, 26
October. The lobby is to protest against ruthless pension cuts in the
education sector. The unprecedented action is part of a joint campaign
by seven leading education unions to draw attention to the myths
surrounding the debate on pensions and to the severity of the cuts
being proposed.

Teachers are concerned that pension changes could cause a recruitment
crisis. Teachers and lecturers who are entering the profession, or who
have recently
entered, will face the greatest difficultly in increased costs for
their pensions. New teachers and lecturers may have large student
loans, which could be over £30,000. Teaching is one of the top
graduate employment destinations; this could change if the proposals
are introduced.

The lobby is being held during the half-term holiday to avoid
interrupting school children?s education and causing disruption for
parents. However the seven unions have not ruled out further
industrial action if the government continues to erode pensions.

Organisers of the campaign issued this statement:

The fact that thousands of teachers and lecturers from around the
country are giving up a day of their half-term holiday to come to
London to lobby MPs shows just how high feelings are running. The
profession is absolutely united in condemning the scandalous way
pensions are being ransacked to pay off the national debt.

The public has a right to know that cuts could ultimately affect the
quality of education for young people as high calibre graduates
re-think their career choice. We will also be challenging the myths
about how public sector pensions impact on taxpayers.

Teachers and lecturers never take strike action lightly and for this
reason the lobby has been organised during half term, to ensure there
is no disruption to pupils or parents. However if the government
continues to erode pensions, which they know are both affordable and
sustainable, teachers will be left with no option but to take further
action, including strike action.

We urge the government to listen to the message that this lobby sends.
Teachers cannot stand by and see their pensions eroded for purely
political reasons. It is entirely possible to avoid further disruption
but for that to happen the government needs to negotiate fairly.?

Details are available on the website:
http://www.decentpensions.org.uk/2011lobby

!"£$%^&*()

Shared resources on the TES website

Weekly report on your shared resource(s):

Views: 58
All time views: 544

Downloads: 47
All time downloads: 479

These are just worksheets (mainly Maths) uploaded to the TES website.
They are free. The idea is to avoid re-inventing the wheel every time
you want a worksheet on fraction equivalents etc.

My target is 500 downloads.

Wacko!

A survey conducted by TES has received massive publicity. It shows 49
percent of parents supporting corporal punishment in schools. The more
significant finding which the tabloids did not cover was that more
than eighty percent of parents opposed cutting education spending. I
can't imagine why the gutter press was not interested in that one!

I have taught successfully without the use of corporal punishment for
32 years. It is many years since corporal punishment was allowed in
British schools and in many cases the people who are condemning the
"feral youth" of today did not actually get caned themselves.

A sign of the times was when a private school wanted to utilise a
loophole in the law and carry on caning (sounds like a good film
title). They found the only place they could purchase canes was a sex
shop which could also have provided whips and bondage gear. When this
got into the papers they thought it was not quite the image they
wanted to portray to the public.

I did not go into teaching to hit children, however provocative the
little darlings may have been. I have however had (very rarely) to
physically restrain pupils from harming themselves or others. That is
not punishment. And interestingly the most difficult of the pupils I
have taught in all that time have been beaten by their parents. And a
fat lot of good it seemed to do them.

This does not surprise me. My brother was caned on his first day at
secondary school for "fidgeting". His school had substantially more
physical punishment than mine yet by any standard the behaviour at his
school was worse. Perhaps the culture of bullying was passed down from
teachers to pupils. I saw the school bully at my school outside the
head's office on numerous occasions. Did he cease being a bully? No he
became a bully with a sore backside.

There are some issues which the polls showing public support for
corporal punishment seem to avoid. An example would be ?would you be
happy for your daughter to be caned by a male teacher?? An
overwhelming "NO" shortly followed by "I'll have the law on yer!" would
be a probable response. Many people approve of beatings for other
people's children of course, but are not too happy about their own
being beaten.

The other issue involved in the question is corporal punishment for
girls which many parents find abhorrent. It means that exactly the
same offence by a boy would receive a caning and by a girl some other
punishment. How just is that?

I once had the privilege of being driven by a taxi driver who had an
opinion on education. His went a little further than most. He would
have a quiet word with any miscreants and tell them he knew where they
lived and he knew people who knew people who could set their house on
fire. What can you say in the face of such considered judgement? All I
did say was that I valued his input and of course I wouldn't dream of
telling him how to drive a cab.

If anyone chooses to suggest that my classroom must be a haven of
licensed wrongdoing, do spend five minutes there before drawing such a
rash conclusion. After all I would have sought an alternative
occupation if things were like that - you know an OFSTED inspector for
example :)

The caning issue is being used as a diversion from the real problem in
education: a problem correctly identified by parents who
overwhelmingly oppose the cuts. Gove and co really do want to turn
back the clock: unqualified teachers in dilapidated schools for the
poor and only the best for the rich. Of course many of the old
Etonians in the cabinet will have felt the cane. And it cannot be said
to have improved their behaviour one jot.

All of a Flather

Baroness Flather has claimed Pakistani and Bangladeshi families are
having lots of children in order to claim extra benefit payments. The
first female Asian peer (and a very good argument for the abolition of
the House of Lords) was branded "deeply irresponsible" and "out of
touch" following her comments.

However it has come to our notice that a woman living on state
benefits, a Mrs Windsor of Buckingham Palace, has had no less than
four children in order to increase the amount of civil list benefits.

Despite subsisting on state handouts, Mrs Windsor is rumoured to have
massive personal wealth stashed away and is thought to be the richest
woman in Europe. I think Baroness Flather could turn her attention on
this waste of public money.

Old soldiers want to be teachers

They might wish they were back in the trenches pdq!

The EDL are linked to Anders Behring Breivik.

Lily Allen wrote a song about the BNP called "F*ck you very much".
Perhaps more appropriate for the EDL is Imelda May's "I go with a
psycho".

The police however have believed the assurances of the EDL that mass
murderer Breivik really meant some other EDL not them!

Arming the cops?

Several members of my family live in London and I have been concerned for their welfare. I was not reassured when millionaire and failed Prime Minister Cameron jetted back to "deal with" the London riots. One of the soundbites he thought would play well was to authorise the use of plastic bullets. There are only a
couple of problems with that.

Police target practice on a black citizen lit the blue touchpaper in Tottenham. Was that such a good idea? Did it help the police to work with the community?

Plastic bullets in Northern Ireland resulted in 13 deaths, including those of seven children, and scores of serious, permanent injuries and disabilities. Is this all part of Cameron's "Big Society"?

And finally is it not likely that the plastic bullets for rioters today will be turned on peaceful protestors tomorrow? Giving police powers is easy. Taking them away is not.

Big Issue and a Big Hypocrite

Walk down any high street in this country and you will meet a homeless
person selling the Big Issue. If you want a living indictment of the
kind of society millionaires like Cameron defend you need look no
further.

And what is this? The current Big Issue is edited by David Cameron!
John Bird, who set out wanting to help the homeless now has them
forced to peddle the most disgusting Conservative Party propaganda. If
his name does not appear in the New Year's honours list - there just
ain't no justice!

In an editorial Bird lavishes praise on "the big society" in which
individuals can take the place of the state in helping out. Yet of
course this very magazine shows what is wrong with this approach. The
homeless are at the mercy of the whims of a philanthropist. If those
whims include grovelling to the Tory Party then the homeless have to
grovel. Refuse to sell the magazine and you don't eat tonight.

And one final question. If Cameron or Bird go into hospital will they
be happy for a volunteer to walk in off the street and operate on
them? If so I am prepared to give it a go. Where's my scalpel?