I’m a Labour voter and I sympathise with the position Starmer is in. On the one hand he has teaching unions and councillors calling for schools to close now over safety concerns and the spread of the virus, and then on the other he doesn’t want to be painted as “a man in the pocket of the unions” by the Tory press.
What isn’t surprising though is that all the signatures of that letter are from MPs on the Corbyn loving Labour left. We all saw where their leadership led the party in the last election and Starmer is right to be wary. I do find it unbelievable that some unions and councillors are openly celebrating Williamson’s partial u-turn as if it’s wonderful news. It really isn’t as condemning the most deprived children to fall further behind their peers isn’t a Labour policy at all and not one as a Labour person that I will support.
When are the unions going to act in the interests of the children rather than their own?
First of all ‘teaching unions’ have not called for schools to close, ‘a’ teaching union has called for schools to close.
Second, Starmer pledged to stand up for working people, not stand aside for fear of how the Daily Mail might paint him.
Third, the open letter is a call to look at the science, to follow the science, and for this government to publish the science. To paint this in political terms is an attempt to deflect from the science and the principle of open government.
Four, not seen the ‘open celebration’ of Williamson’s u-turn that you allude to, but Williamson is a Tory right winger who is putting lives in danger, and as such, I don’t understand why any Labour voter would wish to sympathise with him or find it unbelievable that he should be criticised.
Five, it is true that the evidence seems to suggest that the most deprived will fall further behind, but anyone genuinely interested in the education of the most deprived would speak up for them regularly and often, not at selective points in time to score a political a point.
Finally, teachers always act in the best interests of children, that’s why they become teachers. A teaching union primary purpose is to represent the best interests of it’s members, and always does so with the best interest of pupils and education to the fore. To suggest they do otherwise is u sustainable.
It is not in the interests of pupils to return to a school where teachers are dropping like flies and they end up being taught by supply teachers or being taught in a situation where several class groups are rolled together and taught by a single teacher, and a teacher who is likely to be a non specialist.
To put the blame for this situation on teachers and teaching unions is a distraction from where the blame should lie, and for the Labour Party and Labour voters to engage with the blame shifting of this government, to perpetuate their lies and distortions and to do the work of this government, is why this situation will continue to be mismanaged
