Gerard Kelly’s editorial (“When there are bandits in the staffroom, it’s time for heads to get in touch with their inner Clint”, 18 February) is yet another love letter to Sir Michael Wilshaw. Armed with an enthusiasm for over-extended metaphors, he woos Sir Michael by announcing that schools need heads who are “entrepreneurs and empire-builders”. Yet in an earlier editorial, he criticised me for suggesting that what Sir Michael would like for Christmas might be an empire.

Mr Kelly, I think I know the object of your affection better than you do and I fear that you are going to get hurt. You may have caricatured the NUT’s opposition to academies (“the last thing we want is hot-shot outsiders challenging duff staff”), but will all this Rightist grovelling win over Sir Michael when Michael Gove is offering him national advisory committees and freedoms for the Ark charity? Face it, Mr Kelly: you are but a tabloid swineherd compared with the silk purse of a secretary of state. I beg you to seek counselling and a sub-editor.

Mark Lushington, Hackney NUT.