NATFHE Pickets for AoC Strike, Police almost Outnumber Protesters, and M says “No Thanks”

Well there goes day 2 of the highly anticipated AoC 10th annual conference.

This was the the day I was most excited about, with the prospect of a 1000 NATFHE members protesting about their pay in the bitter cold outside and 300+ Principal inside. But, on the day there were only 250 protesting NATFHE protesting members and about two Police officers to evry protester. What were the police waiting for, exactly? Egg throwing, baseball bat welding anarchists? This is hardly the picture of your average college lecturer that we have all come to know.

Barry Lovejoy, the Head of Colleges for the NATFHE, explained the reduced number of protesters was due to a number of colleges re-opening salary negotiations with the mere threat of a strike. I met up with some protesting NATFHE members outside Tower Hamlets College on the way to the AoC conference and Mark White, who is the main NATFHE Tower Hamlets college representative, explained that a number of staff fully supported the strike, but as they are paid hourly they just could not afford to strike.

M Says No to ID Cards

So no jeering or egg throwing outside, then. Kellys speech didnt cause any egg throwing from the Principals inside either. But then came Stella Rimmington. Stella is the Former Director General of MI5 (If she was in Bond she would have been M!). Her speech was interesting enough – but her comments when one Principal asked her of her views on the ID Cards will certainly be hitting the headlines!

She basically poo pooed the ID Cards and said that in principle they are a good idea, but she did not believe that we yet have the technology and that they will not protect anyone.

Well the NATFHE protest didnt create too big a storm, but M certainly did.

Who ever said that FE wasnt exciting!