Colin Wakeling takes a robust approach to his union: he roundly abuses it. His election address for the junior vice-presidency of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers seems to offer a compelling case for joining another union.
Wakeling, principal teacher of history at Firrhill High in Edinburgh and a past Scottish president of the NAS, accuses the UK leadership of “steamroller” tactics, provoking a “festering” dispute with its own staff last year, and of being “remote and authoritarian”.
But the real complaint of the “CW for JVP” campaign is probably that the leadership interviewed a man from the Educational Institute of Scotland - “close partners” of the National Union of Teachers - for the Scottish regional officer’s job while “ignoring well qualified NASUWT stalwarts”.
The EIS figure was Keith Barker, former Strathclyde official of the union. But who could CW be thinking of as the rejected NAS stalwart? Perhaps we will be told.