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LETTERS Email letters@socialistworker.co.uk Socialist Worker 1 April 2020
9
Post Socialist Worker, PO Box 42184, London SW8 2WD

Just a
Food firms thought...

hike prices

No t saf e on
Not safe on
AS A parent having to
homeschool, one of my the railways
main concerns is keeping
our family fed. SAME FOR us on the
Local supermarkets are railway in the north (No
still crowded, and going hand sanitiser, no social
there runs the risks of distancing, no protection,
infection. So we rely very 25 March).
much on our local shop at Sanitiser only arrived
the end of the road. today. No alcohol content
though so not too sure
I have found that large about how much use it
bags of potatoes are being will be.
split into bags containing We’re still having to
four potatoes each for a squeeze past passengers
price of over one pound. to do our jobs because
That represents, I they simply won’t stay
believe, a 400 percent price home.
Plus some of the
hike. Onions were the same. trains we work on make
As far as I know it is it impossible to stay
illegal to do this with away from passengers
packaged goods as they are ILLUSTRATION: TIM SANDERS when we do our safety
sold for a particular price critical work. Not to
per package. mention the small space
I phoned the local MP and recirculated air.
John Penrose, who is a Jon Long
Tory. His assistant told me On Facebook
there had been many such
complaints, but didn’t say Crisis shows how education Royals are the
what they are going to do wrong priority
about it.
This cannot be attributed SO PRINCE Charles
to “panic buying”. That is can get tested but
not the problem. It is a can be organised differently health workers putting
political problem. themselves at risk every
Frances Laing day to try and help
North Somerset others can’t?
If you’re a celebrity,
rich or royalty this
Where are AS A teacher, socialist and trade where there are queues. Labels on system will look after
you.
chairs so that gaps are maintained.
If you’re a vital worker
unionist I met the cancellation of
the unions? Sats, GCSEs and A Levels with into toilets outside the dining depended on by millions
It was strange to guide students
you can be left to die.
mixed feelings.
I have genuine sympathy for room, two at a time, to wash their Lin Froggett
children who have been preparing hands before entering and after Lincolnshire
HAVE I missed something in long and hard for their tests and exiting, and have them comply
all the news about Covid-19 exams. almost to the letter. Brutal reality
and the lack of equipment But the dirty little secret of our But most surprising of all was about benefits
for workers in health and education system is that exams are the way staff almost instinctively
care? fundamentally flawed. started to distance themselves. I’M PUZZLED. Can
Where are the trade If baseline testing for four year It just seemed to happen, almost someone explain how
union leaders? Are they all olds is reintroduced, the as if it were a habit that had been Universal Credit and
hoping for a nice meeting government will spend millions on in place for a lifetime. sick pay were judged to
be completely adequate
with beer and sandwiches a test which will fairly accurately But how strange it was to enter and fair until those who
with a Tory government to tell us what month a child was Focusing on exams damages children an almost empty school. To see hated those on benefits
sort it out? born in. more staff than students. More found they had to make
While their members are The intensive training of Education and Ofsted to set the classrooms than pupils. a claim?
at risk from lack of students that some schools use for agenda we will continue to do our To hear nothing along so many Denis Jordan
Sats and the more humane students a disservice. of the corridors. South Tyneside
approach used by others means As I was writing this, a friend on In the—few—classes, a lovely
the data is unreliable. Facebook asked whether after all atmosphere. Very light. Pupils Let’s say no to
A relentless focus on final exams this is over we want to go back to appeared to be very happy, and neoliberalism
tends to disadvantage working the way we were before. getting on with work. Taking
class students and students from We must organise for something everything in their stride. IN SOCIALIST Worker
ethnic minorities. far better. But hanging over everything was Alex Callinicos quotes
Judging schools on test data has Kieran Picken a sense that we’ve never been here The Telegraph’s Ambrose
narrowed the range of subjects in Teacher and District Secretary Derby NEU before, coupled with not knowing Evans-Pritchard, “Boris
some schools. And focusing on (personal capacity) what it’ll be like tomorrow, or next Johnson must embrace
grades has contributed to a week, or in a month. socialism immediately
growing mental health crisis DURING MY many years in What if we don’t return after to save the liberal free
among young people. education, I’ve experienced some Easter, or not until after the market.”
That’s what the bosses
Students are turned into raw very odd days, fun days, joyous summer?
TUC leader Frances O’Grady want. Stuff that.
material for data collection at the days, sad days, heartbreaking I say I’ve not experienced No going back to their
protective clothing and cost of a broader and wider days, quirky days and celebratory anything else like it. neoliberalism.
sufficient equipment they education. days. But perhaps it was like my first Sasha Simic
seem to have been The government is still finalising But I’ve never experienced day as a student teacher, not On Twitter
remarkable only in their what it intends to do regarding anything quite like Monday last knowing what to expect. Only
silence. students’ final results. As teachers week in my school. being surrounded by a school full CORONAVIRUS may
They should be at least we are well placed to know what Students and staff very quickly of staff in the same boat. herald the death of
making outraged noises if they are capable of at this point in became attuned to following social A voyage of discovery. Let’s neoliberalism.
But it might usher in
not leading action on the their lives. distancing policies, and the plough on. fascism by the back door.
front line. As long as teachers and support school’s interpretation of them. A school worker Jed Platts
Graeme Cumming staff allow the Department for Pieces of tape on the floor Kirklees, Yorkshire On Facebook
Prestwick