TEACHERS DESERVE A BETTER DEAL......

Ed Balls has the manner of a manic Civil Serrvant and that's probably because he spent so much time at the Treasury. To say he lacks the common touch is undersrating the issue and his arrogant appearance on the ITV News just now will not have won him many fans. Frankly, how dare someone on a Ministerial salary lecture low-paid teachers on their decision to strike. It's 21 years since the last industrial action and teachers don't down tools lightly. The LRC is right behind the picket lines in the NUT, PCS and UCU
LRC Chair John McDonnell MP said today, "Government Ministers, the Conservatives and Nick Clegg have all condemned the civil servants and teachers taking industrial action today, but I applaud the members of NUT, PCS and UCU who have the courage to stand up against wage cuts at a time when inflation is ripping through standards of living.
"Many loyal public servants have been forced to take action by the Government's refusal to acknowledge that its pay policy is cutting the income of some of the lowest paid workers in the public sector."

MORE PRIVATISATION IS THE MESSAGE

Thanks to the generosity of the co-op movement, I have a monumental hangover and brain is addled so thanks due to regular poster "Frenetic" for alerting me to item on the BBC website in which Gordon Brown outlines his game plan for the public sector . Basically, it's a very predictable agenda of more and more "choice" and marketisation - remember , those reforms which were painted as utterly Blairite and which he was supposed to be AGAINST. Reforms opposed by UNISON - the same union which nominated him as Leader. So I trust Dave Prentis feels like a bit of a turkey, now. The only thing the left can do in the face of this wilful ignoring of its concerns is to keep campaigning, keep explaining and lobbying MPs. But it's very depressing indeed.