NUTS to You!

Over the Easter Holiday in the U.K. we have been unfortunate to once again witness the annual Whinge Fests known as the teachers’ conferences. Each year at this time the impressionable young people of Britain are exposed to an appalling display of exhibitionistic juvenilia at the conferences of the teaching unions who cannot agree on anything amongst them selves - they are the National Union of Teachers, NASWUT, ATL, NACG, PAT, NAHT, SHA – you get the drift; there are lots of them and they are fiercely sectarian and their party trick each year consists of crying wolf, proclaiming a pox upon any change to the status quo and generally passing a plethora of ridiculous resolutions (“International Affairs” is always the most ludicrous and entertaining area) of the type which would bring any properly organised Youth Assembly into disrepute.

Of these the most juvenile refugee camp for the sectarian lefties who can no longer (to the eternal credit of Tony Blair) find an outlet at the Labour Party Conference for their shrill screeching are the aptly acronymic NUTS – National Union of Teachers. Consider first their comic quality as epitomised by their previous General Secretary, Doug McEvoy, who once described a Government memo pointing out the danger of discussing policy with NUTS in his usual understated bluster as "a disgrace ... a sinister lack of tolerance and a rejection of democracy at the heart of government". When this Great Democrat decided to step down from his well upholstered position after doing the full 15 years allowed under NUTS constitution only 21.7% of the NUTS 240,681 members voted and 11.3% elected his successor, Steve Sinnott in 2004. There were 52,310 votes cast in the election and under the single transferable vote system, Mr Sinnott beat Ian Murch in the final round by 27,287 to 22,134. Problematic indeed when NUT members stand in front of a Citizenship Class and discuss Gordon Brown’s beloved “British Values” such as, errr, errr, Democracy!!

The form in ASBO style behaviour at NUTS Conferences over the years has been as impressive as their love of Democracy.

In 1995 the then Secretary of State for Education, David Blunkett (who is blind) was chased, heckled and forced to take refuge in a side office. Disability awareness is not a strong point in modern Britain.

In 2000 delegates staged a walkout during a speech by Estelle Morris.

In 2003 Secretary of State Charles Clarke would not attend the conference - and nor would any of his ministerial team. It highlighted the poor state of relations between the government and the union, which strongly disagreed with recent initiatives (sorry: that should read “any initiatives”) such as the push for advanced classroom assistants who would share some of the teaching workload with qualified teachers, in a small number of specific circumstances.

Mr Clarke said the conduct of NUT delegates had "not encouraged a positive dialogue" and had "seriously damaged" the image of the teaching profession. The union rebuked his decision as "immature". The BBC's education correspondent Mike Baker commented that "There is also evidence to support his view of the impression given to outsiders. I have become used to the ways of the NUT conference but each time I am accompanied by a new cameraman or technician, they are always appalled by the behaviour of a minority." An official of the GMB (which represents nursery nurses and classroom assistants) attacked the NUT's constant threats of industrial action, saying "The NUT executive should stop playing class war politics with our education system. They are not accurately reflecting the reality of the classroom or the agreement."

This year (2008) they (uniquely among the teaching unions) also voted for strike action; the following report from the Trotskyite “Socialist Worker” captures the flavour fairly well:

“Delegates agreed that this years’ conference of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) was one of the most enthusiastic and left wing ever. Teachers are currently balloting for strike action and questions of pay and industrial action dominated the conference, held in Manchester over the Easter weekend. Other important debates included pupil behaviour, class sizes, city academies and military recruitment in schools. The conference voted to affiliate to the Abortion Rights campaign. The left were well organised with a lively meeting of the Socialist Teachers Alliance on the Friday night. Around 70 people attended a meeting of the Left List. Over 250 crammed into a meeting on “Britishness, racism and the war” with Lindsey German from the Stop the War Coalition, former Guantanamo prisoner Moazzam Begg and Rose Gentle from Military Families Against the War.”

No doubt the Children of Britain need to be grateful to these Trots who were expelled from the Labour Party and who will demand respect from their charges when they next stand in front of their classes.

I have had some insight into the heroic cadre of leaders who lead these selfless working class heroes with their extensive holidays, bomb proof pensions, free school trips to exotic “educational” destinations and salaries of up to £41k a year. The NUTS bought a former stately home and college of education, Stoke Rochford Hall, in a leafy part of rural Lincolnshire where I often used to attend conferences (http://www.stokerochfordhall.co.uk ) This is a beautiful Jacobean revival house designed by the famous Scottish architect William Burn. The Hall was built in the early 1840s for a local wealthy landowner Sir Christopher Turnor. Many of the original features have been retained in and around the impressive Grand Hall and surrounding function rooms which include a magnificent Conservatory leading onto garden terraces. The rich interiors and attention to detail capture the Victorian splendour perfectly and the village itself was the birthplace of Sir. Isaac Newton. Following a serious fire in 2005, the Hall has had an extensive restoration scheduled for completion early July this year. In the grounds there is an indoor swimming pool and a fine fitness centre called “Gym and Tonic.” Across from it is an 18 hole golf course and in the basement of the main house there is a superb but expensive restaurant with prices which would not raise an eyebrow among Non Doms. in Mayfair, Central London but which seemed very high in leafy Lincolnshire.

But all was revealed for each weekend the General Secretary, in his chauffeured Jaguar, and the NUTS Executive committee would take themselves and others to this leafy haven for some serious Rest and Recreation utilising the apartments in this stately home reserved for just such a purpose which are a welcome perquisite of their position. They were unfazed by the fancy prices in the excellent weekend only restaurant for they did not have to pay, quaintly signing the bill as is their entitlement as NUTS Apparatchiks. When the NUT Executive demand better pay and conditions for their members I can assure you on this issue they lead both from the front and by example.

The teaching unions are against testing, league tables, out of school activities, academies, faith schools; you name it they are against it! What is far less clear is what they actually stand for. What they seem not to realise is that however inept the Labour Government has been in implementation they are responding to real parent’s concerns over standards, achievement, transparency and accountability. There is also a real public concern about what the extra teaching places, the real support and subsidy of teacher training, the increase in salaries and career paths for teachers and the huge real increase in the Education budget over the past 11 years has actually achieved.

There are real issues in U.K. Education in relation to choice, access, achievement and motivation and, whisper it, value for money. In the U.K. there is no doubt that children are spuriously over tested and forced to specialise too early resulting in an imbalanced education for secondary school leavers who can graduate without a foreign language, a knowledge of Geography or History and frequently without an effective ability to express themselves in writing or verbally. So there is a real and welcome debate to be had but until the teachers unions lead from the front and show the two “V’s”, that they have both a Vocation and a Vision there is little danger of their setting the agenda and being respected by their Pupils or indeed the Parent’s whose confidence they have lost.

The NUTS Conference in particular is the last playground of the irrelevant left wing juvenilia which has been so discredited in most other fields of endeavour. So, six of the best for the teachers and write out 100 times “MUST DO BETTER NEXT YEAR”. Sadly, this is a journey where it is possibly better to travel than to arrive, for like many of their half baked graduates the teaching profession seem to have lost the ability to learn the lessons of history. O.K. NUTS it’s time to get out of the playground and join the real world. That way you’ll get the respect of your pupils and their Grown Ups!