Date: Mon, 19 Mar 2001 14:54:24 +0000 (GMT)
From: =?iso-8859-1?q?ninetyone=20andy?= <andy_91_2000-AT-yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: I've had an interesting anonymous letter - Suggestions please?



Hi all,

I've been firing off some virulent missives about the
General Teaching Council - a body which the Government
has set up to be a professional association for
teachers and to speak for us. Suffice to say it has an
inbuilt majority of appointees [by Government, trade
unions etc] and a minority of elected teachers. It
will be compulsory for teachers to belong, and it will
cost 25 quid - a sort of poll tax. It is headed by
Lord David [Chariots of Fire] Puttnam, the eminent
film [singular] maker, for reasons which escape me.

Anyway, I'm against it, and having had a letter
published in the Times Educational Supplement, the
trade press as it were, on Saturday an anonymous
communication appeared on my doorstep, postmarked
Birmingham. Clearly my first thought was that it was
the Wrath of Goat, as he had spookily mentioned
Birmingham last week.

However, this letter makes some points about the GTC
which don't seem to be in the public domain and which
are contentious, involving budgets, extensive foreign
travel, scope of activity and stuff. It was anonymous
- the level of detail suggests a worker at the GTC,
perhaps an elected pissed off council member, or
friend relative of same.

Obviously, were I to publish this stuff and it were to
be wrong, I would be up for libel and Brit libel laws
are punitive. I wondered if it was just a 'lettre
povocateur/euse' and I was being set up. Or is this
just good old 60's paranoia?

Alternatively, I might be a possible conduit and the
intention is I'm supposed to pass the stuff on.

There's no point in me approaching the GTC myself as
they ignore the persistent complaints of their
putative members.

I could go the mainstream press - more coverage but no
guarantee they'll follow it up; I could go to one of
the anarch papers, less coverage though.

I could stop sticking my head above the parapet and
dig in for the medium haul towards the pension
[Partner's preferred option].

What do you reckon? Any other ideas?

Andy


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