Member News
1st October 2010
With the election of a new leader the Labour Party has "come back towards its home", says Gillian Goodswen of the National Union of Teachers.
Speaking to ePolitix.com at the Labour Party conference in Manchester, the union president said she believed the party under Ed Miliband would be sympathetic to the NUT's views.
"They have the best person they could possibly have to bring the labour party back together," she said.
"The important thing is that Ed is open to listening and he's somewhat of an unknown quantity, I think that is a good thing.
"He's stated very clearly that he is not a Blairite, he is not a Brownite, he is his own man."
"I do think the labour party has come back towards its home; we're not talking about strikes and all of that rubbish. What we are talking about is that it is starting to say 'yes, we do believe in the public sector'".
And Goodswen dismissed suggestions that he is in hock to the unions just because their votes helped him defeat his brother in the leadership election.
"He's not a union man," she said. "To suggest that somehow he is in the hands of the unions is completely bonkers."
She added: "We are starting a new era of Labour politics and I think that’s really good."
Attacking the coalition's education reforms she warned that plans to expand academies and introduce free schools would hit the poorest children hardest.
"The one thing Michael Gove has done is got the teaching unions working together, not any other secretary of state has managed to do that," she said.
"A lot of the attacks on the public education service has happened because Michael Gove is riding on the public agreeing it is a good idea to cut.
And she gently warned head teachers to stick their heads "above the parapet" of their own school and think twice before accepting academy status, as it would take money away from other children.
"It's very difficult not to think about the children you've got in the building at that moment and what they will benefit from," she said.
"Look at the bigger picture, who are you taking that money from? It's not new money. The money is being taken out of the system.
"The children who are going to suffer are the children at the other end of the rainbow in schools that really need the support."
"As a head teacher, and I am one, you want to look after the children and staff in your school, but that doesn’t mean you don't look above the parapet"
She added: "It's about a family of schools, not just about 'me, me, me'.
Have your say...
Please enter your comments below.