Goveduck

My friend Neal decided (rightly), that the Education minister, Michael Gove, has the face of a flounder. Steve Bell's decided that he's a duck. This is the Gove who's planning to take far more from my salary to pay for a much lower (and worse) pension to be paid out years later - without applying the same logic to members of parliament, to pick a random example. 


By the way, Gove has called on parents to scab by running classes on the strike day. Well, good luck to the schools in getting all the Enhanced Criminal Records checks done - as legally required - by Thursday: mine took a few weeks. If they can't show them, don't send your kids to school.

Oh, and for Nick de Bois MP, who suggested that the strike votes are illegitimate because fewer than 50% of the members voted in favour, let's look at his electoral history:

• he campaigned against the Alternative Vote, which ensures that MPs have to gain 50%+1 vote to get elected: 'unfair, expensive, discredited and unpopular…a disaster for our much admired democratic system'.
• he was elected with 42.3% of the vote: not even a majority of those who bothered to vote. With a 67.1% turnout, he managed to become the voice of Enfield North on the back of 18,804 votes out of 66,347 eligible voters, which looks like an underwhelming 30% to me. Clearly de Bois should resign forthwith, according to his own logic.

de Bois also claimed that other professions like doctors and lawyers weren't taking industrial action. Oh yeah? The lawyers are furious at attempts to slash Legal Aid, and the doctors' leader said this yesterday:

Let me make it absolutely clear: we will consider every possible, every legitimate action that can be taken to defend doctors' pensions," he said in a speech to 500 doctors' representatives in Cardiff.

"I have this message for ministers. Whilst we will be reasonable, whilst we will not rush to precipitate action, whilst we will not put patients' lives at risk, do not in any way or for one single moment mistake this responsible attitude as a reason to underestimate our strength of feeling and our determination to seek fairness for those we represent.

"The profession will act responsibly, but we will not accept an unwarranted and unfair assault on our pensions." Meldrum's remarks, which were greeted with loud applause, underline the strength of feeling among doctors over changes which he said should not be "just a poorly concealed tax on public sector workers".

He also criticised Danny Alexander, the chief secretary to the Treasury, for, he said, making the job of negotiating a settlement "impossible, if all we hear are public ultimatums and ridiculous threats such as those we heard just a few days ago".