Unions due to teach Labour sorry lesson

THE PROLONGED howl of despair from the teaching unions at their annual conferences has become a venerated ritual during the Easter period. As activists give their readings from the gospel of grievance, incantations of sorrow over pay are accompanied by repeated mantras about "Tory cuts" and righteous talk of strike action.

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This year, in the usual atmosphere of rhetorical militancy from the classroom comrades, the traditional liturgy has been followed rigorously. Today in Liverpool begins the annual gathering by members of the National Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers. Boss Patrick Roach has warned his union is ready to "do whatever is necessary", including strike, to get a better deal, despite the Government's award of an inflation-busting 5.5% pay rise last July.

Roach will not be involved in any showdown, having decided to retire as general secretary. But there is a strong probability his successor could be even more of a radical firebrand. In an extraordinary move, the executive of the NAS/UWT has named as its preferred candidate the hardline left-winger Matt Wrack, former boss of the notoriously uncompromising Fire Brigades Union. Wrack, a close ally of Jeremy Corbyn, has no teaching experience, but his combative political approach appeals to the union's picket-line pedagogues.