Opinions from both sides of the barricades

16th November 2012, 12:00am

Friday lunchtime. In the staffroom. Time for my weekly dose of right-wing diatribe to spoil my digestion before my toughest class; time to make a start on Gerard Kelly’s editorial. I know I shouldn’t but it holds for me the fascination of picking at a scab.

So Mr Kelly doesn’t think much of our action short of a strike. I am left to ponder: what would he have us do in the face of this relentless assault upon us? Does he want us to actually strike? No. He will find that idea almost as distasteful as we dedicated professionals do, pushed into a corner where little else is left open to us. How about a boycott of Ofsted? No. I like that one but I have a funny feeling he wouldn’t. So what should we do? Nothing: that is what Mr Kelly really wants us to do. For my part, what I want is for him to say what he means. Instead of the dragged-out rhetoric and unclever wordplay of his indigestion-inducing editorial, I’d really like to be surprised one lunchtime by him saying exactly what he thinks. Failing that, I’m going to do it for him: “Shut up and suck it up, you whining lefties!” I’d have a lot more respect for him if he just came out and said it.

Josh Eyeington, A working workplace rep.