LGTL

What? Some realism for the Private Sector workers that have rose tinted glasses on concerning their own work and value? Good.

An interesting snippet from the BBC; "An interesting change of language by the prime minister's official spokesman today. Pressed over whether David Cameron still believed public sector pension schemes were in danger of going broke, the No 10 spokesman said: "We are seeking to make the system fairer." No longer saying that the public sector pension schemes are "untenable". A word used by the Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude this morning on the Today programme who said he was quoting from Lord Hutton's report on the issue. But further questioning from Evan Davies revealed that nowhere does Lord Hutton make that claim, rather he argues that the drive to reform public sector pensions is a matter of "fairness". It now seems someone at No 10 has read the report more closely." So can you all stop using the "we're broke" excuse please. Thanks.

At least he and others are doing something proactive in order to show their disdain, even if you don't agree with the reasons. Striking is a perfectly legal concept, not if the tories got their way though. What did the Private Sector do when all this "happened to them too" that we've heard so much about on this thread? Some people say they just got on with it, whereas others argue they cried and whimpered into their private healthcare, shares and overtime, realising they didn't have it so bad afterall, whilst cuddling up and being a lapdog to their boss just because they were "grateful to have a job". Please. They could have showed some backbone. That sums up my time perfectly working in the Private Sector actually. Full of hot air and bullsh*t.

Getting back to the teacher strike, I find it amazing that Cameron and co haven't even performed a promised valuation of the pension scheme. What does that tell you? That the results would not look great upon the governemnt I imagine, because if it was the opposite you can bet it would have been done months ago.

I post on the Englandfans forum and there is a group of 20 or so who are a bit cliquey, all meet up for a love in at games and if you dare disagree with one of them all hell breaks lose. This forum is alot of things, great and bad, but i've never found it cliquey, and I like that.

What would be the point of a strike if it didn't inconvenience anyone?

Are you not at all concerned that it's pretty clear more dodgy russians are using you to launder vast sums of money? You'll be fine for this season, maybe next season who knows, but what happens when they have what they want and move on like the others? Another car crash waiting to happen, and you know it.

Who remembers a time when we didn't rely so heavily on "the city"?

He was hardly a target. Did ok, but not of the required quality. It's pleasing to know we obviously have better targets in mind.

The Aston Martin and posh restaurant to him is what a Ford and Tesco ready meal is to me, only less appreciated. At least when I head on holiday with my missus after saving ****iing hard all year i'll know she wants to be there and we'll have a great time. I'd rather that then have a life with some bird who loves the high life, looking after the precious darlings at home all day while ****ging the next door neighbour cos i'm never at home to satisfy her...

At my age (23) and soon to be newly qualified, the only way i'd be able to get even a 10% deposit for a house is through help from family or inheritance. It's not the mortgage that's the issue, just the stinking deposit.

It's even harder half a generation down. The 20-25's have been ****ed over in just about every possible way.

I have a mate that fits them, he's swamped with work at the moment, and the average profit margin per job can be up to £3000!

It'll take another year or so now for this to get going again. Of course they'll have money for a little while, those Russians have a hell of a lot of money to "clean up". But once again it's a short term resolution, they are too thick to even realise or care.

Why do you need to keep mentioning this? Everyone knows what's happened, and he's served his time and managed to re-build his life very successfully. He also happens to be one of the best posters on this site, as VFTP and under a previous username. IMO.

Yes.

The potential to earn money in the Private Sector is so much greater than in the Public Sector. If you're a good enough worker, with a decent education, there are PLENTY of massive companies still employing, still making huge profits and still being very generous to their staff. For professional Public Sector workers such as teachers and nurses who want to stay in their career choice, they have no other option... If you couldn't avoid the pain working in the Private Sector, that says more about the worker then anything else.

All of this is making me wonder just what Cortese has up his sleeve. I can't imagine he will just sit back and watch the rest strengthen, the next few weeks might just get a bit interesting.

All this "my dad is bigger then your dad" by the Private Sector is nauseating. It is perhaps no conincidence on this thread that it's only teachers, and partners of teachers, who appreciate just how hard they work. But everyone else knows best of course, with their years of teaching experience.

One of the better ideas that Gove has put forward is an increased importance upon academic acheivement in order to teach. I'd make it a 2:1 or above profession, as regardless of course or Uni that does at least require some amount of effort. It is increasingly becoming a Masters profession too. However, being an extremely bright student doesn't mean they'd come close to being a good teacher, and government recognise this otherwise they'd just be done with it and offer £60k a year to only those with 1st's from Russell Group Uni's. That would ultimately mean the brightest would teach, but there's a reason why no governemnt would do that.

aintforever was obviously bullied by some big bad teacher during his school days...

I can just see the Daily Mail headline if parents without a CRB come in and "look after" the children. Dear oh dear, Gove really thought that one through again didn't he.

The holidays are for the children. If there are no children to teach then what's the point of the teacher being there? What's the point of giving a teacher 4 weeks holiday and have them sitting in their classrooms planning and marking, when they could just plan and mark from home? I don't hear the uproar about those that work from home in other professions. If it was worked out, I expect many teachers probably get less then 4 weeks real holiday time a year anyway.

Part of me is annoyed I got anything in the original ballot, as it appeared alot easier to get Athletics tickets in the 2nd chance sale with a bit of effort.