TurboHat

Bless you Billy Bragg!

(via @LabourList)
Much mirth broke out on Twitter earlier when it was revealed that Michael Gove has written a foreword to a new version of the King James bible which has been sent to every school. This story spawned two hashtags – #godisgove and #torybible – so we’ve brought you 10 of the best ones (so far), for your amusement:

@4harrisons – And Cameron said “let there be growth” but lo! There was no growth

@mattedbrooke – And God said, “why have you eaten from the forbidden tree?” And Adam said, “we inherited this fruit from the labour government”

@ChrisBryantMP – Faith, hope and charity – have now been abolished as they were unproductive

@politic_animal – And on the seventh day he would have liked to have rested, but the government had opted out of the Working Time Directive

@lethandrel – And the lame were made to walk and the blind to see – well, according to the new assessments ….

@johnprescott – Blessed are the coalition for they shall inherit from and blame the last government

@cllr_robbins – Blessed are the freeschoolmakers: for they shall be called the children of Gove

@MatofKilburnia – And Lot’s wife was turned into a pillar of salt, which Gove did putteth in school dinners & lo Jamie Oliver was displeased

@GoodmotherMobbs – And the lepers were ‘cured’; as ATOS found them fit for work

@evilflea – And then He createth all of the beasts and the animals, excepteth the cat, which he did not make up.

“As a mother I want my children to have the best possible education, for this to happen we need as a country to have the best possible people as the educators for our childrens future. Do we really believe that eroding the benefits of the teaching profession will allow us to keep our best people? We need teachers who are the best qualified, the most committed and the most passioante about education, if we give those people the message that educating is not valued and the private sector is the only place they’ll be rewarded in line with thier qualities we will not have a future for this country, our children and our children’s children will be failed and we will only have ourselves to blame.”

Many thanks to my colleague Matt Smith for putting this document together. It shows the government’s own facts that they would rather conceal, preferring to conduct their politics via the Daily Mail frontpage instead.

Justification for Action on Pensions

The Threat:

Pay More: The Government is proposing that teacher pension contributions increase from 6.4% to 9.8%; an increase of over 50% costing NQT’s around £60/month and experienced teachers up to £100/month. Work Longer: They are proposing an increase in the age teachers retire to match the increased state pension age of 68. Get Less: They are proposing calculating pension values based on a career average salary rather than final salary.

The History:

In 2006 our Unions were involved in negotiations to make teachers pensions more affordable. Changes were made in 2007-2008 including increasing the pension age to 65 for new entrants. Pension contributions were increased by 0.4%. A cost sharing and capping mechanism was put in place to transfer further costs to employees in the future if the scheme became unaffordable. After the 2010 general election the ConDem government asked Lord Hutton to report on public sector pensions, in his report he made the suggestions outlined in “The Threat” above. The treasury has chosen to defer use of the agreed cost sharing and capping mechanism to pursue these changes.

Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics:

The Government often quote figures of the projected net costs of public sector pensions, these values sound huge, but their use is disingenuous. The Hutton report itself states that “the widely-used net cash expenditure figure is not an appropriate measure” and prefers to measure the cost as a % of GDP (Gross Domestic Product). The Hutton report shows the Government Actuary’s Department (GAD) predicts that public sector pension costs will drop to around 1.4% from 1.9% of GDP as a result of the changes put in place in 2007-2008. This level has been considered affordable in the past, so should not be considered a problem in the future. The Government often claims “we are all in this together”, teachers are already paying their share with the current two year pay freeze and increases in VAT, etc. It is true that public sector pensions are preferable to those available in the private sector, but at around £10k the average teachers’ pension is not “gold-plated”. If anything, action should be taken to improve pensions in the private sector. This is about encouraging people to invest for their future; it is not a “race to the bottom”. The Government’s motivations are political and not supported by the financial evidence. Additionally there has been no consideration of the effect these changes will have on the recruitment and retention of talented teachers, this has serious implications for the standard of education in Britain.

For these reasons, I urge all of you to take part in the industrial action on 30th June. The truth is that our pensions are affordable and the evidence exists to back it up. For further information please see the NUT website teachers.org.uk.

Much of the information contained in this document came from the two Government sources below:

• The impact of the 2007-08 changes to public sector pensions – Public Accounts Committee (May 2011), http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201012/cmselect/cmpubacc/833/83303.htm

• Independent Public Service Pensions Commission – “The Hutton Report” (March 2011) , http://cdn.hm-treasury.gov.uk/hutton_final_100311.pdf

June 2011, Matthew Smith.

The ConDem government will surely spin the turnout figures to their advantage but let’s put that in perspective
The NUT voted 92% in favour of action on a 40% turnout, that’s 36.8% of the electorate.
The Conservative Party in 2010 polled 36.1% on a 65.1% turnout, that’s 23.5% of the electorate.
The ‘No’ vote in the AV referendum polled 67.9% on a 42% turnout, that’s 28.5% of the electorate.
David Cameron has hailed two of these as crushing mandates. Guess which ones.

This post is serves to correct some of the smears that two local councillors have been making regarding the March 26th “March for the Alternative” in London.

Firstly one councillor claimed that unions had paid for members to travel 1st class. The reliable source of “a bloke on the radio” was cited. The facts are that many unions (including the NUT) chartered trains to enable members to attend. Had they not done this many would not be able to afford to go to London (in large part due to ConDem pay cuts). These trains used very old rolling stock and some of these carriages were old and unused former 1st class carriages. The cost of this was £44 per seat, compared to standard Virgin price of £46-£54. Also these chartered trains were fully stewarded by union members and did not have any of the normal “perks” of rail travel such as flusing toilets, let alone 1st class service. In addition these trains had to give way repeatedly and allow “regular” trains to pass, thus massively increasing the journey time. Hardly “1st class service”. Seems that some local politicians won’t let pesky things like “facts” ruin a decent bit of propganda.

A second councillor could barely hide his mirth at “all the Labour activists” being away in London. The march was populated by over 500,000 public servants and their families. The vast majority of these were 1st time marchers and not “activists” at all. Simply dedicated public servants disgusted at the ideologically driven assault on our public services fuelled by bravado and perverse machismo by the cabinet and their “who can slash the most” mentality.

Both of these episodes highlight the utter contempt that these elected officals show for the dedicated public servants that they represent and are responsible for in their elected roles.

Anyone who sends their children to a state school, has used an NHS hospital, has a relative in a LA care home, values the Police, Fire-Service, Ambulance, and countless more besides should applaud and be proud of every man, woman and child who marched peacfully with the TUC. Sadly I was unable to travel to London with my colleagues. I feel massively proud of them and salute them for standing up and making themselves count.

Take a good look at the services you receive right now. Before too long they will be gone forever and a distant memory if this government continue on this hateful path of destruction fuelled by ideology and dogma.

It seems that the abolition of The Audit Commission may have a more insidious motive than the mantra of ‘cuts, cuts and more cuts’.
Presumably local authorities will be expected to appoint private companies such as Capita, PWC and KMPG (are these expected to do the job at lower cost that a public body?). These three frontrunners in this field have bankrolled the Tory party to the tune of almost £3m in donations and gifts-in-kind. Along with the continued cosying up to Uncle Rupert and the erosion of the independence of the BBC it seems as if the first priority of this government is to pay back those that heaped it get into power.

While on holiday I missed the news that Mr Cameron had appointed Philip Green to advice on how deep to swing the axe of cuts on the public sector.
Perhaps he would be better used to advise on how to seal tax loopholes of the super-rich. It seems Mr Green is an expert in this, using his Monaco based wife as a conduit to avoid paying UK tax. Such methods allow Green to fund his lavish lifestyle such as spending £5m on a birthday party for himself.
I’m sure that when hard working public servants receive their P45s they will take solace in the fact that the hatchet man was able to comfortably mull over their fates while sitting on his multi million pound yacht while sipping the finest wines paid for with the proceeds of his tax avoidance.

Cheers!