Saturday, April 26, 2008

Supporting the Labour Party is like supporting Watford FC

Allow me to explain. For 12 years I have been a supporter of Watford FC a football club who seems to have more ups and downs in the past 12 years than a jack in the box. This year it was a new season , a fresh start for watford in the championship. And for the first three months or so , just like the start of Gordon Brown's premiership , everything went great , Watford were 9 points clear they were in command , just like the start of Gordon Brown's premiership Watford could survive easily whatever the opposition threw at them . Then it got to the big game for Watford against West Brom ,and the big decision for Gordon Brown , should he have a general election or not he panicked and decided not to a sign of weakness . At the same time the whole entire watford team panicked and got beaten 3-0 by west Brom . After this both teams - team Labour and Team Watford Lurched from disaster to disaster , Watford it seemed couldn't buy a win at home , The Labour party it seemed from the Iraq War to the losing of Millions of people's child benefit data to EU (ahem ) reform treaty or the abolition of the 10 p rate of tax, everything it seemed go wrong . Then for both it comes to a defining moment , Gordon Brown can show his strength and bat down the 10 p labour rebels of whom some are in their cabinet , Watford can get there promotion bid on track with a win against Crystal Palace at home. Unfortunately both blow it , Gordon Brown does a U -Turn promising a bumber deal where the poor will get lots of money , and Watford succumb to a two nil loss.

Both have leaders who looked so good - Watford with Aidy Boothroyd, and Gordon Brown with the Labour party. However at the moment both look like they couldn't motivate a guy on cloud 9 such as Joe Calzaghe at the moment . Both seem to be making baffling decision , Aidy Boothroyd with his decision to not use substitutes till 10 mins from the end , Gordon Brown with his decision not to sort out Northern Rock and then making a decision where the taxpayer faces all the risk . Both have made dodgy appointments or for watford transfers , Watford with the arrival of Collins John -who is continually injured and couldn't give a damn for the club -Nathan Ellington -over 3 million pounds what a waste of money , Mart Poom -what's the point of buying a goalie who sits in the reserves , Matt Jackson -i've seen a geriatic grandad run faster, and now to Gordon Brown's appointments Ed Balls, his right hand man - Every time he talks , people on the street think what a thorougly arrogant nasty man he is David Milliband - supposedly like Nathan Ellington the future of the team , both look about as confident in their jobs as i would dancing , and David Milliband also has the persona of a snivelling child , hardly a requirement of a Foreign Secretary , Tessa Jowell , Olympics Minister - how much is the Olympics going to cost now , have you lost count, or Mark Malloch Brown -a foreign minister , one of the goats , fiercely anti american , - great just what you need in a british diplomat not , Digby Jones -actually i like this guy , but he dont seem to like the Labour party , about as committed as Watford's Collins John.

In conclusion , the future for both at least for this season looks as bleak as George Bush chance of having a poll making him best statesmen of all time. Maybe that's telling people something , maybe the man at the top should be sacked.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

The Millitant NUT leadership and it's selfish teacher strike

Before you criticise all teachers from the NUT(national Union of Teachers) , lets get one thing straight , the strike wasn't voted on in a democratic way . The strike was passed by a majority who were there to vote on the issue , but there was only one third of the people in the NUT vote. In other words a minority of a majority have voted for this strike -the rest are apathetic. This doesn't sound much like democracy at all . In fact it just seems a way the leadership led by trotskyist Christine Blower can force through its ludicrous strike. Lets not criticise all teachers either. After all the NUT represents only about 1/3 of teachers , the NASUWT and the ATL , the other Teacher's unions , know as the more moderate unions are not striking -as A -they think the public dont support it , and B -they dont see the point .

Then the reasons for the strike , teachers dont get enough pay. OK the pay is below inflation, but so is everyone's at the moment be it in the public or private sector due to the UK being in the economic downturn , at least unlike the police the government accepted the independent arbitration pay rise given to teachers of 2.5%. Where do you think the government is going to get the money from to pay for an above inflation pay rise ,people are already highly taxed so not much manouvre there , the national debt is way to high so they cant borrow to much , to spend for teachers to get an above inflation pay rise. Im sure any maths or economic's teacher could tell you this , the NUT leadership though it seems , thinks you can get pay rises in an economic downturn from thin air. Also what other job , guarantees you 14 weeks Holiday a year - not any job i can think of . As part of the public sector they get an extremely good pension deal - much better than their counterparts in the private sector. Another reason given for the strike is that teachers work incredibly hard. Ok yes it's true ,and it doesn't help the amount of bureaucratic measures from a centrally controlled National curriculum telling them what to teach .However at the end of the day , the government has increased regulations for nearly everyone bar bankers in the public and private sector in the last 10 years ,and all people who are working generally work hard - because if they didn't , they would get sacked -thus the argument that teachers work too hard is null and void. The teacher strike also handily doesn't mention that over the past fifteen years , they have been receiving above inflation pay.

Even if you agree teachers get a raw deal , i thought teacher's job was to help and teach children. This strike is at a time when students are coming up to GCSE'S , AS , and A-Levels , when they need all the teaching they can get , they can't afford a day off school right now. How can they still claim to be commited to childrens' education. It is not the children's fault for teacher's pay , or the amount they work , yet they are the one's who are getting punished and to me this seems incredibly unfair and detrimental to their education. It is expected 1/3 of schools across the country will be thrown into chaos by the teacher's strike , the chaos doesn't effect the government who they are trying to pressure , it effects students and children. This makes people across the country less likely to support the teacher's position. It's not often i agree with Ed Balls , the government's education secretary , but he got it correct when he said "I'm on the side of parents who will be disappointed if their children's education is disrupted on Thursday because we have decided to accept an independent pay review"

As the Daily Telegraph says "The only way that substantially more cash could be made available for teachers' salaries would be through the introduction of the sort of structural reforms that the NUT has consistently fought: cutting out expensive central and local government bureaucracy, and allowing schools to control funding and determine their own pay levels".

Here the times , have what the other teaching unions think of the NUT strike - not a lot really . John Dunford, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Lecturers, said: “I am disappointed that the NUT has voted in favour of strike action over a pay award that represents a good deal for teachers in the present climate.”
Chris Keates, the general secretary of the NASUWT, said: “The majority of members recognise that, compared with other public sector workers, they have fared relatively well.” Maybe just maybe if you've not got the support of the general public or even a majority of teachers , you should realise the strike is pointless.

The acting secretary of the NUT said the strike is a last resort .All the above suggests it isn't , after all the other 2 unions , with teachers in the same boat , dont think that it has got to a position where they need to strike. The NUT leadership are known as the nutters , there latest action is living up to this name.

Monday, April 21, 2008

Ken has no good policies , so he steal's boris good policies

Boris Johnson had an excellent idea called the mayoral fund to encourage a giving culture in london through charity and at the same time encourage entrepreneurship. Ken Livingstone then criticised it in hustings on tv and not on tv and in newspaper column's . However now in a feat no more amazing than Lazarus's return from the dead , Ken has suddenly decided - it's a great policy , and im going to steal it - and you know unlike Gordon when he steals policies off the tories , Ken is not going to hide and say ihe didn't do it , he will be honest and say yep stole it. Just one thing Ken - doesn't that mean you've just been lieing to londoners in recent debates about what you are going to do for London - after all you said u didn't want a mayoral fund and now you do.

here's the evening standard article on this issue. http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-mayor/article-23479499-details/