My birthday

It is my birthday today, so I am going to be self-indulgent and talk about issues that are personally close to my heart.

The snow in North London, where I live, was a delight this morning, I spent an hour making vegetarian mince pies for my staff, taking pleasure in looking out onto the white coated garden, and brought in a jar of my hell brew (rumtoft, made with rum and sugared summer fruits and then left for six months) for everyone to have a tiny taste.

I was wondering, hearing the news that the court had declared the BA strike vote to be unlawful. When a court in this country had ever declared a strike to be lawful when it was being challenged by employers? It is perhaps ironic that I am probably the only member of staff at the Howard League who has been on strike. Back in my teaching days there was a day of action and schools across the country came out, except in my school in Liverpool I was the only one who went on strike. This was despite the fact that I was teaching secondary school students in a portakabin and every time it rained, it rained on us. We didn’t have sufficient text books for everyone, hardly a library and I was fresh from training school but given a full teaching load, from “remedial” to A level. I went on the demo in inner city Liverpool and lost a day’s pay, which was hard as I was poor and not earning a great deal anyway. Nevertheless, I have always respected collective rights and solidarity. I am very proud that my brother has spent his life in the trades union movement working for better conditions and educational support for low paid public sector workers.

So I am off out tonight to celebrate being 57, partly because for most of the year I thought I was 57 anyway and was expecting to be 58. Is that early onset forgetfulness, or perhaps it really just does not matter.

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December 18, 2009 Tags: BBC news Posted in: Uncategorized