Saturday 16 September 2017

Assistance Required

It was announced yesterday that Durham County Council's latest proposal to screw over the Teaching Assistants, which is the same as the last one, is to be brought to its Full Council meeting on Wednesday, 20th September, at 10am.

Alas, I cannot be there at County Hall, so there will be no repetition of my speaking through a megaphone from its steps to hundreds of demonstrating TAs and supporters below, while the staff kept us out of the building until my Campaign Patron, the great Alex Watson, told them that, as an elected member, he could not be prevented from entering. And this time, it is in the school term anyway, no doubt on purpose in order to prevent another enormous display of protest.

But be there if you can. Since Parliament will not be sitting, and since it is not the Labour Party Conference until the following week, Laura Pidcock MP will of course be there in support of the Teaching Assistants. Why, it would be worth reporting by the local media, and by the TAs themselves on social media, if she were not there, following her mass leaflet drops across her constituency this weekend, and following her appearance on the regional segment of The Sunday Politics tomorrow. 

After all, she does owe the TAs, having walked out of their Solidarity Rally, having beaten one of their doughtiest champions at the General Election, and having appointed as her Political Advisor the man whose bad political advice is responsible for the fact that they have not already won. Anything less than her attendance in support of them on Wednesday would suggest the need for the TAs and their supporters to demonstrate against her wherever she went. And that would be absurd.

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