Sinnott's speech - text book trade unionism?
Sinnott's speech - text book trade unionism?

Steve Sinnott's speech at the end of the NUT conference was almost a text-book case of the limitations of trade unionism.

It was paced and populist. McAvoy is best remembered for a peevish rant at the end of conference
in Blackpool in which is denounced the delegates as an unrepresentative clique, saying "real
teachers were preparing and marking not coming to conference"
By contrast Sinnott was inclusive and flattering, even including Martin in his warm embrace of
his "former rivals and present colleagues". He also made use of his reputation for radicalism
overseas. In the past left reformists were always more radical the further they were from the UK
and he is no exception.
He was full for praise for the response of members to the pension campaign and emphasised that he
backed action to the hilt (lol) and then there was a shift in emphasis as he went on to
say the purpose of the action would be to get into a dialogue (he avoided the words social
partnership) with the government of mutual benefit to New Labour and the NUT.
Having got the audience on his side with the appeal to unity he knew he was not going to be
contradicted despite the fact this was flat contrary to the mood of much of the conference.
Trade unionism without a political perspective can only seek negotiation and compromise and it
does not recognise fundamental differences of interest.
Sinnott was soft on New Labour, soft on the causes of New Labour.
The vote to establish a political fund came dangerously close for New Labour loyalists like Steve
Sinnott. The next conference, after another year of New Labour, could easily see that vote
reversed.
(note Social Partnership - I was trying to remember where I had heard the phrase social partnership and eventually remembered J Ramsay Macdonald who said on the day he formed the National Government "tomorrow every duchess in London will want to kiss me." Nice for him, not so nice for the duchesses and disastrous to the unemployed who had their dole cut as the first act of "social partnership.")
http://www.socialistteachers.org.uk

Worth Abbey
Worth Abbey is a remarkable piece of architecture. I am not a Catholic, more of a born-again atheist, but Worth Abbey represents the realisation of an architectural idea which anybody can understand.
The brickwork, the windows, the sense of space even the colour of the carpet all conspire to give the impression that you are out of doors (I was there for a concert). And of course in the UK an outdoor concert would be fraught with problems with the weather, so Worth Abbey is a good venue. The acoustics are also first class.
And of course the subtext - the church has a hell of a lot of money!
The concert itself was very good, involving the country string and wind orchestras and the boys and girls choirs.
The program was very good but had the unfortunate centerpiece of a work by Nigel Hess. My immediate response to which was that I would cheerfully dig him up and throw stones at him. However I discovered that he is also the man who wrote the Maigret theme and numerous other TV program themes, so this piece of egregeous patronising tosh was an aberration

Very interesting research
I received this email today:

From: Alastair Weakley
Subject: [Air-l] Form an impression! (and help with my research....)

Hi

I am looking for academics with an interest in technology to take part
in an online survey about impression formation (my research is into the
sharing of implicit and tacit knowledge with people over the Internet).
I would be very grateful if you would consider sparing a few minutes of
your time to take part in the survey which is available here:
http://www.weakley.org.uk/experiment1/index.php

Many thanks for your help.

Alastair Weakley

Posted by derekmcmillan at 9:11 PM GMT

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Roses
I had a very good crop of roses (can you have a crop
of roses?) last year so I decided to use the same
tactic this year. The old lore on this is you should
get your worst enemy to prune them for you. I couldn't
persuade the late Chris Woodhead to do my gardening.
Instead I called to mind a particularly egregeous
negative officious small-minded little scarab of an
OFSTED inspector and imagined I was pruning various
parts of his anatomy with secateurs. It makes the job
fun and we will have to see if it works its magic
again this year. My only regret is that I can't use
him for compost: again I don't know if it would work
but think of the enjoyment.

I had a rather difficult call on the helpline last
night. It was one of those callers who decided I
needed the story "from the beginning" and almost went
back to her birth. And it was a harrowing story. The
poor woman is being treated very badly by the school
but they are staying just this side of the rules so it will be difficult to do anything about it. Then at the end, after I had given what advice I could but
explained there probably wasn't anything we could do
she thanked me profusely. In a way that was the worst
bit, there were tears in her voice if you know what I
mean.

fact, fiction or belief?
Some things are taught as stories and pupils do not have to believe they are true. Some things are taught as facts. However if it turned out that the Battle of Hastings was in 1067 not 1066 I would not have to change the way I live dramatically in order to accommodate this new information.
How does anyone dare to teach belief if there is even a shadow of doubt that it is truth - the word of God? It is not as if you could go in to a church or a temple and get up after the sermon and ask questions. It is "the truth" on tablets of stone given by God and you can't argue with that....you just have to leave your reason in the porch.

Religious Assemblies
The following summary appeared in a discussion on the TES website. I asked the permission of the writer to quote it.

"Worship" in state schools, on a daily basis, enforced by law, is what you get when you allow bigots of any religious persuasion, any say whatsoever, in the government of the state, especially the kind of religious bigots who cannot attract the populace at large into proper places of "worship", so abuse their powers in the House of Lords to inflict "worship" on other people's children and their teachers, in schools, on a daily basis, whether schools want it or not.

Who, but a bigot, would wish to force daily worship on schools?

Who, but a misogynist, would wish to deny women equal rights within their own religious hierarchy?

Who, but a homophobe, would wish to deny homosexuals equal rights within their own religious hierarchy?

Who, in their right minds, would give the kind of bigoted, misogynist and homophobe members sitting in the "Lords Spiritual", past or present, any say in how any school was run, or, indeed, how the country should be run?

An answer to the last question might well be any political party who welcomes "useful idiots" into the democratic process.

Dink

200 terror suspects in the UK
Sir John Stevens, who retired as London Metropolitan Police chief last month, claimed 200 terorists are stalking the streets of the UK and said it would be "madness" to free foreigners held under an anti-terrorism law that Britain's highest judges have ruled illegal.
We are constantly being told that "anyone who harbours or supports a terrorist is a terrorist" and "anyone who opposes the government's security policy is supporting terrorism."
So in Italy, Spain and the UK there are not a couple of hundred but a couple of million "terrorists" and hey if you torture them long enough goddam it they will confess to it.

The Tories think they can win and New Labour have the image of Bush to remind them that the "imminent threat of terror" can sway gullible voters.

Nobody has yet asked Clarke what his information is of the electoral consequences of playing up the threat of terrorism: New Labour must be in possession of that information if nothing else...or is it a state secret?

Parent Power?
"Parent Power" is nicely alliterative and it could be taken to mean anything you like. Both Tory Parties will claim to believe in it. They want to go on reorganising education every two years to show they are "pushing up standards". I will refrain from mentioning what they are pushing them up.
Recent research indicates that the loss of control over the job is a major factor in a catastrophic decline in job satisfaction.
"Professor Green of the University of Kent stated "In Britain, all of the fall in overall job satisfaction between 1992 and 2001 could be accounted for by people having less personal responsibility and use of initiative in their work, combined with an increase in the effort required.

Politicians thinking they know more than you do about how to teach your class for example!

Most ambiguous bumper sticker ever

Some people genuinely believe that the invasion of Iraq was to overthrow the evil Saddam (boo!) so that democracy (hooray) could triumph all over the middle east. It was an altruistic war for peace and oil had nothing whatsoever to do with it. No doubt they also believe they will find those elusive weapons of mass destruction any minute now and Bush and Blair are only taking away our liberty and getting rid of those old fashioned taboos about torture for our own good.
And some don't.

In either case the "Iraq: I told you so" bumper sticker is for you!

Irony or Hypocrisy
President Bush announced""This is non-negotiable. It is time to get out... I think we've got a good chance to achieve that objective and to make sure that the elections are fair. I don't think you can have fair elections under foreign occupation."
Are the words "irony" and "hyprocrisy" not in his dictionary?