Pity the poor popcorn seller who was supposed to be working on the stand of the Association of Teachers Lecturers. He arrived in Manchester on Saturday, got caught up in the daily six-hour queues for security passes and had still not got in on Monday afternoon.
But the delay did not prevent the union from running one of conference’s more successful operations. Keen to show it was “keeping education in the picture”, it employed a caricaturist whose cartoons were emailed to happy subjects, including Cherie Blair and Mary Bousted, ATL general secretary (pictured left with her caricature).