Saturday 10 March 2018

In These Times

Some rubbish about the late, great Davey Hopper is in The Times today. It is by someone called Andrew Norfolk. Will a thousand people turn up to the funeral of Andrew Norfolk? Will the undertaker turn up to the funeral of Andrew Norfolk?

He might far more usefully examine the fact that, since Davey's death, the Durham Miners' Association has swapped sides completely on the scandal of the County Durham Teaching Assistants, to the extent of seating Simon Henig on the platform of last year's Durham Miners' Gala.

Led by Henig, Durham County Council has deprived 472 Teaching Assistants of 23 per cent of their pay, so that they are now paid less for full time work with children than the members of that council are paid for no formal requirement beyond attendance at four meetings per year.

With another hung Parliament on the way, justice for the 472 would be a non-negotiable condition of my support for any Government. Can Laura Pidcock say that? What is she doing about it? Does she reject the endorsement of the Leader of Durham County Council, Simon Henig?

The Teaching Assistants are in fact in their current predicament because they took the political advice of the man who is now the Political Advisor to Laura Pidcock MP, rather than taking mine. It is no wonder that my Campaign Patrons are two of their most stalwart supporters, the local government legend that is Councillor Alex Watson OBE and the trade union legend that is Davey Ayre.

You know what you have to do, brothers and sisters. You know what you have to do.

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