Subversives, terrorists and other threats to the British Way of Life

In honour of yesterday's Daily Mail front page ('Resist the Union Bullies'), some more examples of those bullies in action at J30, with Mail-appropriate satirical captions). The whole set is here and there are more highlights in the previous 2 posts (go here and scroll down). Click on these to be confronted with the 'enemy within' on a gigantic scale!

Indoctrinated. She'll never fear the working classes now!

Look at her, sitting down rather than working for the minimum wage and a poverty-stricken retirement. 

That's right. Michael Foot has been reincarnated and he's coming for your children

Of course they're delinquents. They're under 65, which is the only qualification Daily Mail readers recognise.

Brown people expressing opinions: every Mail reader's nightmare

Lost to the tennis club and Young Conservatives. A life of drugs and abortions awaits these two.

Bono's really let himself go

Even the middle classes can be poisoned by the Doctrine of Hate peddled by subversive primary school teachers and lefty lecturers. 

Behind that cute expression, she's already planning violent revolution

And what's worse, his sticker was in English until some English people walked in!

(It's Welsh for 'Fair pensions for all')

Another of the usual anarchist suspects to be found at every demonstration

'The Gathering of the Unions', Birmingham 1832. Sorry I couldn't get a better shot. I was engraving as fast as I could, but they kept moving!

More faces of evil

J30 Special: Here are some more of the terrorists the Daily Mail warned 'parents' about (as though no parent is a public sector worker, parent of public sector workers, or descended from public sector workers). Captions are satirising the Mail of course.

That would be the newspaper which blamed us teachers for a girl's death today. That's right. 'Because' we were on strike, she sat under a tree. 'Because' we were on strike, the branch broke. 'Because' we were on strike, she died.

I wonder how the parents of this poor girl feel about the way their daughter's death has been used, and note that no reporter would actually put his or her name to this disgraceful piece:

Full set here: click these to enlarge.

Look at her evil smiling face… bet she's some kind of anarchist communist poisoning innocent children's minds

They can't even march straight

Another child lost to Satan

Ugh! Modern Art!

Celebrating the downfall of British Values!

Some of these strikers wear nice clothes! How dare they complain about their pensions!

Dreads. Brown skin. Happiness. Everything the Daily Mail fears!

He only looks innocent. Inside he's a cauldron of hatred for Middle Britain

Look at her grinning altruistic face! Burn her!

What every radical subversive academic will be wearing tomorrow

I've just nipped out to do some shopping. As a fully paid-up member of what Margaret Thatcher called 'the enemy within', I came back loaded down with weaponry ready for tomorrow's strike.

Actually, I bought two new pillows and a breadbin. And this, 'designed' by me, which I'll be sporting on the picket lines and at the big rally in Birmingham tomorrow. Victoria Square, 12 noon. I couldn't think of anything catchier than 'millionaires mugged me for my pension', and didn't have time to get pictures of Clegg, Cameron, Gove, Willetts et al. Still, it will do, and I rather suspect I'll get to wear it rather too often.

I won't be blogging tomorrow, but I'll be taking a lot of pictures which I'll try to post on Friday, during out Staff Conference. Meanwhile, remember the old slogan: Educate, Agitate, Organise!

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". 

Back once again, it's the renegade master…

Well, I managed a whole 11 hours out of the office before some magnetic force dragged me back. On the agenda today: a subject meeting, a meeting with the Great High Panjandrum on behalf of a union colleague, and maybe even some actual academic work.

Today's news featured the woeful intelligence that public sector pensions are going to be a) lower b) more expensive and c) be paid much later because apparently we've all been greedy, lazy selfish bastards. As a point of reference, the average weekly pension for a female local government worker is £52 per week (females make up the majority of the public sector workforce).

This has been announced by Lord Hutton. A man who has a pension larger than my salary, a fat expenses account and the polished red leather of the House of Lords on which to park his plushly-upholstered bottom. He's also chairman of the Royal United Services Institute and on the board of Hyperion Power Services Inc. So not a man who will notice a few quid more or less on his MP and ministerial pensions.

If there is a pension deficit, it needs to be looked at, and if we're all living longer, I don't have a fundamental objection to working a bit longer. But I really do think that being made to pay more and get less on top of contributing for longer is a punch in the face: especially as those at the top never seem to suffer. The deal in the public sector used to be that we'd be paid less than if we worked in the private sector, but we'd get decent retirement benefits. Take that away, and who's going to opt for civil service?

I've had enough. I'm going to spend the afternoon applying for jobs in a hedge fund… I've been nice to you people for long enough. It's time to get a Porsche and really start bankrupting some people.

Spot the scab

There's a BBC news journalists strike on today and tomorrow, over pensions (despite the senir management being paid telephone numbers, most BBC staff aren't on top whack).

Because radio and TV news are so public, it's going to be really easy to see who's a dirty, class-traitor scab. Take down their names and remember them - when they need help next time, they're on their own.

Conversely, respect to the famous and rich presenters who've manned the picket lines in solidarity with their lower-paid colleagues, such as Paul Mason, Newsnight's economics editor and all-round good egg. Wearing a suit to a picket is a particularly nice touch. Joining him in solidarity if not in physical form were John Humphrys and Sarah Montague from the flagship Today programme.

Mark Thompson, the director-general of the BBC told them that:

"The public – many of whom are facing difficult employment and economic pressures – will find it very hard to understand why the BBC's service to them should be impaired in this way," 

Mark Thompson earns £834,000 per year, with commensurate pension.