Villan, when you and I were at school if we misbehaved, the teacher punished us, and then if we dared to tell our parents about it, we were punished again. A status quo prevailed.

The arrival of the doting, smart-arse, barrack-room-lawyer, "I know more about teachers' jobs than any teacher", "How dare you punish my Perfect Little Angel" brigade of parents wrecked the status quo, and it will never be restored.

If children are rude, insolent and diabolical in the classroom, it's because thirty years' of these kind of parents, and the increasingly litigious society we live in, have encouraged them to be so.

44 years ago, when I left school, I'd have given my right arm to have the balls to go to college (no degree needed in those days, jonm, just 'A' Levels and a three-year course at Teacher Training College) and become a teacher. I wouldn't be one for a king's ransom today.

And FWIW, I don't begrudge them a pay-rise. But I think nurses and policemen should earn the same as them - they're all underpaid.