View From The Top

So you get a big fat, paid for by the tax payer, final salary pension after 22 years service without paying 1p into it? You're right, the choice is suck it up or leave, same choice as I have. My worry is that we won't have enough good maths and science graduates in the future and that is bad for all of us. God knows we are awfully short of them now.

How much do you pay into your pension Jamie? How would you feel if part of your "deal" was changed and you lost out on £1000s per year? You'd rightly not be happy.

He was refering to the proposals that NQTs start on 1/2 the £21k until they complete their NQT year in school or college.

My missus hasn't been to a game for over a decade and my daughters show no interest. My nipper is totally hooked and goes home and away with me. Happy days.

And there are proposals floating about that they should only get 50% pay for that year as they aren't qualified until they complete their NQT year.

In a couple of years, when the powers to be are complaining that they cannot get high calibre science or maths graduates to go into teaching, thus damaging the future competitiveness of the nation one of the reasons given will be the "package" isn't worth it anymore. Schools and colleges, at least in Staffordshire, Shropshire and the West Midlands are hemorrhaging them at an alarming rate and cannot replace them with qualified staff, or even NQTs as there aren't any. Of my degree class I'm the only one still in education and the lowest paid! Many kids won't be taught by qualified staff causing further damage, at that's the same in LEA schools and academies. This was acknowledged by Gove in a meeting with him this week. Teacher training providers are seeing a continual drop in numbers (although the trend will be bucked this year ahead of increased fees) and the % that do qualify and then spend less than 2 years in a classroom is still on an upwards curb. Still, the thick as f**k pr*cks on here will say it doesn't matter and that teachers don't do f**k all anyway.

I like that analogy a lot.

Let's all get dry butt f**ked and accept it for the good of the country whilst the bankers still rake in the huge bonuses. When the ATL are prepared to strike, the majority of who work a private schools, and a union that has never taken national action and isn't militant at all, people should question why. Still, the rabid right have never really been able to think for themselves, hence ther need to read the Daily Mail.

Because he's desperate for Adkins to fail.

Golac. Legend.

Definatley.

Also into hill walking but don't do it in the summer months.

I feel your pain. Got back to 1660 on my mums side and it is a mix of jock and Dutch and back to around 1750 on my fathers and that's all Islington or the East End!

With 3 young kids, 9, 5 & 3, all my spare time is spent with them or attending swimming lessons, swimming galas, gymnastics, cubs, footy training, Sunday matches etc. My nipper plays for an under 10s team so I help out with that when needed and we spend quite a lot of time travelling. Want them to learn about other cultures etc and not the tedious plastic tourist sh*t. When they are in bed I'll fire up the PS3 and if the mother in law is down then the missus and I will hit the movies. My wife has just finished her degree and I'm doing some more post grad stuff for work and that often eats into an evening

Three things struck me about him after our last meeting. A) He does want to make a positive difference. B) He makes things up on the hoof. C) He hasn't a clue about rough state schools and believes saying it's going to be so is going to make it so.

Friend on mine, who posts on here, will be at the Mansion House tonight, has met GO on a number of occasions when he was in both opposition and government and, to coin a phrase, says he's "'kin clueless". This friend of mine works in The City and earns a salary that goes with it and his oppos are all of the same opinion. He's an economic pygmy. Gove is even worse and I've another meeting with him tomorrow!

That must be awful. I'd die inside if I was seperated from my son. You have every fathers sympathy.

No point in having a seat at the top table if we can't afford the cover charge.

He's stupid, toff or not.

If the Argies wanted to take the Falklands we would be powerless to stop them. Yes the standing forces would offer some resistance they'd be over run and once dug in we would lack the assets to dislodge them.

I obviously agree being ex-RN but the crux is that the powers to be need to understand that if they want us to be a big player then it doesn't come cheap. I would suggest that the majority of the UK would be more than happy if we didn't stick our oar in across the globe and maintained HM Forces suitable for protecting us and working with NATO as an equal partner instead of carrying much of the burden as we do now.

I don't disagree I just think NGOs are better placed, have more experience and are more trustworthy than governments to achieve it. They can't, however, succeed without government funding. If people want to give food producers in developing nations a helping hand then start buying Fair Trade goods and if governments really cared then they'd stop the IMF forcing countries to produce cash crops for western consumers and allow them to focus on feeding their own. Slightly simplistic I accept.

It's because the players aren't playing for him, apparently. Lard is desperate for NA to fail.

It's what NGOs have been doing for years to great effect. They are, and have always been, the best placed to solve the problems BUT they need central government money to do it.

I work in some of the poorest wards in England and see first hand child poverty. However, and I hate to say this as a leftie, it's often down to the work shy, lazy, benefit scrounging parents. Drives me nuts.