Schools Minister David Laws tells us that he is unable to understand why the NUT is taking industrial action in the middle of talks.

Given that the minister thought that the only way not to draw attention to his sexuality was to claim £40,000 in housing expenses to which he was not entitled, his ability to judge what is acceptable is at best flawed.

Each of the unions engaged in talks with the minister is entitled to make its own call on whether to take industrial action.

Whether to strike or not is a tactical decision for every union, but no-one could accuse the NUT of being precipitate or unreasonable in responding to the growing demands of its membership to take action.

While the minister sits down with union representatives to discuss various issues, Education Secretary Michael Gove is pressing ahead with his extremist agenda for state education.

NUT members clearly feel that enough is enough, that teachers' misgivings are being ignored and that the government must be made to listen.

Who could argue with that? Gove is a free-market zealot who is so convinced of his own infallibility that he will brook no criticism or amendment of his programme of breaking up our state education system.

The government claims to be standing up for parents and their children's education, but most parents are supportive of the teachers because they can see the damage being done.

Would any parent back Gove's programme of replacing fully trained professional teachers with unqualified staff, as is now the norm in free/academy schools?

Would any think it reasonable that teachers should be expected to work far in excess of their contractual hours, knowing the effect that this has on teachers' capacity?

Despite a tidal wave of propaganda from politicians and the right-wing media to persuade us that teachers are featherbedded, most parents back their children's schools and their teachers.

Teachers have seen their pay frozen, their pensions degraded and their workload increased as a result of cuts in staffing.

The effect that all this has on teacher morale is not difficult to imagine.

The alternative to standing up to a dictatorial minister by walking out to show him how unhappy teachers are is to do what 40 per cent of their newly qualified colleagues do within five years of entering the profession - that is to walk away from education.

What a waste of the human and financial resources ploughed into years of teacher training.

The greatest asset in the state education system is a professional and committed workforce, yet this government - and others before it - view teachers and their unions as the main enemy.

Until such outdated elitist ideas are dumped, our children's education will remain at risk.

Nationalise SSE

Ed Miliband's taunt that David Cameron is more a "PR man for the energy companies" than a Prime Minister is all but irrefutable.

Cameron applauds the decision by energy cartel member SSE to freeze household gas and electricity prices until January 2016, even though he dismissed Miliband's similar freeze pledge as unworkable and "Marxist."

Despite this ploy, SSE shares have risen as the company has promised higher shareholder dividends.

Nothing could illustrate more graphically the print-your-own-money licence enjoyed by the Big Six energy suppliers, which underlines the need to return them to public ownership and control rather than be seduced by short-lived price-freeze stunts.