Wednesday 20 May 2009

Martin nominated in Lancaster

The Lancaster Morecambe & District NUT Association nominated Martin Powell-Davies and Simon Jones as VP candidates after hearing speeches from Martin, Simon and Ken Cridland on Tuesday May 19th.

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I rushed out of the NUT Office in time to get a train to the evening meeting in Lancaster, not knowing quite what to expect from a hustings meeting where I would be speaking alongside two Lancashire-based candidates!

Local officers made all three candidates welcome and gave us ten minutes to set out our case to the meeting. My call for the Union to develop a clear strategy to win on both SATs and workload seemed to strike a chord with many present. As I have outlined on my election leaflet (do get in touch if you haven't seen a copy), I stressed the need for a campaign of national action over workload, as agreed by NUT Conference at Easter.

Questions and discussion included international issues, support for young teachers and the 'transferable vote' in NUT elections. Simon rightly warned that young members needed to be given their own voice and raised concern that the agenda for some Young Teachers' events was being set too much from the top-down rather than from young teachers themselves. In answer to one young teacher there, I stressed that the Union must not forget the promises we made in the pay campaign to take up the issue of student debt. The Government seemed able to help write off billions of bank debts, so why not write off teachers' student debts as well?

The issue of who was on the 'left slate' for these elections clearly cut little ice with most present as the meeting chose to nominate the two of us who did not have official backing from either the STA or CDFU left groupings! We appreciated the fact that the Association chose to hear directly from us so that they could make their own choice as to who they felt would make the best VP candidates.

Do get in touch, if you would like to invite me to a meeting in your area. My mobile is 07946 445488.

Martin

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