Teachers' leader gets straight to the real issues (no pun intended)

At a time when school discipline continues to collapse, the heads of Britain's teaching unions are ignoring such minor concerns as rape in the classroom, to focus on the issues that really matter to teachers, parents, and the taxpaying public. Last Saturday, Baljeet Ghale, head of the National Union of Teachers, was complaining about "racism". Now, not to be outdone, Chris Keates, head of the National Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Woman Teachers (NASUWT) has spoken out against "homophobia".

More specifically, Miss Keates has attacked the television show 'Life on Mars', alleging that it has caused a rise in "homophobic bullying":

Ms Keates was protesting after this week's final episode of the popular BBC TV drama series - watched by 7.7 million viewers - featured an incident where the abrasive DCI Gene Hunt hurled a volley of insults at a colleague, including calling him a "fairy boy".

Yes. That's obviously of far greater concern than rapes and stabbings in the classroom and schoolyard. I wonder whether Miss Keates has engaged in conversation with an average eight year old in the past 20 years or so? "Fairy boy" would certainly be at the milder end of the vocabularies of some of the ones I've come across.