There have been penalties for those who looked the other way when Epstein was convicted of child sex offences and decided to maintain relationships with the financier — but not for the British ambassador to Washington, reveals SOLOMON HUGHES
Reflections on our NASUWT conference and political campaign
Sending solidarity to sister teaching union the NEU, MATT FLAMENCO sums up his union’s conference and its choices on campaigning activity and industrial action
Labour’s new Treasury unit will ‘challenge unnecessary regulation’ by forcing nominally independent bodies like Ofwat to bend to business demands — exactly what Iain Anderson’s corporate clients wanted, writes SOLOMON HUGHES
DR DYLAN MURPHY looks at a Big Brother Watch report which exposes the government as an enabler of DWP secret spying on benefit claimants
The EU faces a critical choice: will it remain in the shadow of an increasingly unreliable US ally, or will it forge its own path in a multilateral world where co-operation with China is essential, asks MARC VANDEPITTE as leaders meet for the EU-China Summit
A lot of discussion about how the left should currently organise – including debate on whether the Green Party is a useful vehicle for advance – runs the risk of refusing to engage with or learn from the reasons the left was defeated previously, argues KEVIN OVENDEN
For Egypt trade trumps the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians, but how long can the country’s ‘misleaders’ – and others in the region – continue their indifference against the popular will of their own people, asks ROGER McKENZIE
AS this week was the week of our sister union’s annual conference, I wish to send my best wishes to them and their young members and I look forward to working with NEU colleagues in staff union meetings, demonstrations and trade union events.
During last weekend’s NASUWT annual conference, important motions were passed, and our colleagues had the opportunity to share their experiences in local industrial action along with their struggles in a devolved context.
Some of the most striking motions conveyed the rightful sentiment that our government believes that teachers are dispensable, able to be confined to the dustbin when they are no longer young, happen to become sick or are too high on the pay ladder — after all, they can just find a new batch of hopeful, perhaps naive PGCE students and NQTs to abuse (although the falling ITT targets suggest otherwise).
More from this author
MATT FLAMENCO warns of precarity of work, teacher shortages, demoralisation and curriculums filled with ‘corporate-speak’ as among the issues of concern to the education workforce today
Cardiff teacher MATT FLAMENCO pledges solidarity to the Port Talbot strikers, warning that losing vital industries will blight already struggling communities and shatter the futures of the classroom’s most vulnerable children
MATT FLAMENCO warns his fellow young teachers that a potential Labour government will not solve all the problems facing the education sector — and there is evidence to show, once in power, they can be just as bad as the Tories
