While dealing with the teaching unions is a simple stand-off for Michael Gove, spare a thought for poor old Stephen Twigg, Labour’s shadow education secretary, who has to work out how on earth to deal with the NUT and NASUWT habit of opposing everything.
There is a palpable sense of frustration on the Labour frontbenches about the way the two largest unions in particular behave. Twigg has made clear that he does not support strike action planned over a general raft of discontent over many different issues, and he has opposed the work-to-rule industrial action promoted by these unions too. On performance-related pay, the unions behave as though Voldemort is coming soon to a school near you, while Labour is merely unconvinced that it’s the great saviour of educational excellence.
There are some reforms that both the Opposition and the unions oppose. Labour sees electoral benefit in criticising Gove’s support for unqualified teachers, as it has conducted its own private polling which revealed that parents don’t much like the idea.
But the question is whether Labour might be tempted to emulate the Democrats in the US, who are actively taking on the teaching unions with their education reforms, or whether it will produce policies that keep them quiet. I understand that at the moment the party prefers a triangulation strategy between what the unions say and what Michael Gove says. Easy to do at this stage in opposition, but not quite so easy when Twigg and co want to make real decisions about policy, or if they find themselves in power after the 2015 election, having to make really real decisions.
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