Mark Serwotka - Socialist?

Mark Serwotka is the General Secretary of the PCS Union and has a solidly socialist background. He wants you to understand he is of the people and wants the best for the working man. Actually, he is none of the above, it is just that words like socialist are nicer, less threatening.

Mark takes about £90K as a salary and a good slug of money for his pension pot; I have no idea what a union boss does to 'earn' this money, it seems that it is a pretty cushy number. What he does do though, is use that position to cause trouble, supporting his true views, which are far Left and intended to bring about a version of the USSR in Britain.

This needs to be clearly understood, because when people such as Serwotka talk they sound reasonable, Left leaning people who want to oppose Tories. But they lie incessantly to further their cause; it must succeed and so any sense of fair play is put aside. We must start challenging the Left not because they are socialists but because they are not. Many socialist ideals are perfectly acceptable and can be subject to rational debate, but these people are hard to find.

Schools, Teachers And Learning

Teachers striking is in the news. Talk is bandied about of educational standards, good and bad teachers, pay and pensions. But this is a confusion. In an ideal world a teachers Union would represent teachers in their negotiations on pay and conditions. They have no role to play in deciding educational issues.

Unfortunately we are not in an ideal world and teacher's Unions are actually about opposing a government with which they disagree and that they cannot control, so fermenting discord and announcing strikes is their political muscle flexing to get their way. Teachers striking causes immediate pain to the ordinary people and it is then a matter of whether people are weak and give in to the Unions for a quiet life, or fight them for better standards for everyone.

In these situations it is usually the children and the reason teachers exist that gets forgotten. Leftist educationalists are responsible for the poor standards of discipline and achievement in schools and teachers over inflated opinions of themselves. They also run the official complaint machines, Unions, so nothing can ever run properly.

But the Left have also created a 'them and us' narrative, where only one can be right. The government talks of monitoring teachers and sacking the bad ones, Unions say don't inspect, don't sack, just trust wonderful, professional teachers. But properly freed of state interference (and Union control) a Head could look at developing best practice in their school.

If one teacher seems to have striking success at inspiring the least able, then the head should examine how that teacher works and distill the essence to pass on to others. Learning in an institution of learning! Could it catch on? Similarly a teacher not doing so well, should feel confident to seek assistance and know that the admission does not lead instantly to a scrap heap.

All of this of course directed towards the education of the children, which is a million miles from current objective setting in education. Naturally, this local, initiative, outcome centred approach would not suit the Unions or idling teachers. But then, it's not meant to and they really are not the concern of those that care.

You Can't Say That

Jeremy Clarkson says that public sector strikers should be taken outside and shot and the humourless, the nanny state led morons and the dictators jump up and down in outrage. A woman representative of a teachers union says on QT, that he shouldn't be allowed to say it because in Columbia union people are taken out and shot. Her point being that she is a representative of those doing the shooting in Columbia. You mustn't oppose her view and you must keep quiet. Because she says so.

A Labour MP said that if Clarkson had a heart attack, he would be picked up by an ambulance crew and treated by paramedics he wants shot. Except Labour idiot, he doesn't. Not just because it was a joke, you twerp, but because he was complaining about strikers, not people who were working, which is what they would have to be doing to pick him up.

In fact I am heartily sick of public sector unions (not necessarily the people who pay for them) who keep claiming they represent low paid people, who work hard caring for the sick and elderly etc. So who is it that are killing our old people in NHS hospitals, who cannot educate our kids? No this strike was about challenging a non Socialist government whilst pretending it is about pensions. And then about pensions the public sector workers have not paid for and are way above equivalent private sector workers' pensions.

If Cameron wasn't showing himself as a weak left wing politician, these destructive forces would be less keen to take on the government. Public borrowing is still going up, but the Conservatives are trying to get it back under control and allow the productive sector to grow us out of the mess we are in. The unions want a high tax society where people like them get to control what your money is spent on (and that they have access to it too). Look at the salaries these union bosses award themselves, then ask who you want spending your money; you or them?