Teachers are the time-honoured Tory political football. In the good old Thatcher days there was routinely an annual hyped-up educational "scandal" in the tabloids a few weeks before the next teachers' pay round was to be settled. The government have drawn battle lines now. There was that disgraceful Mail front page. There was the boss of an academy consortium shooting his mouth off about how "kids" are being "damaged" and telling us that teacher's protests are "rather middle class." He knows as much about education as I know about the bowel habits of unicorns. We had the incredibly stupid Gavin Williamson (God knows how else to describe him) telling teaching unions to "do their duty." Today we have the Tory-appointed Children's Commissioner being wheeled out and propped up to brainlessly push the June 1 "policy." We hear about how children "don't catch it a lot," "only get a mild dose," "don't spread it much," all with frighteningly-inadequate evidence. We know that little "kids" won't social-distance. We can afford to sacrifice a few teachers after all. You can always get a few more of them from somewhere. Dunno about the cleaners and the canteen staff...

What a bloody shambles. Stand your ground, teachers. Schools are not there to babysit so that parents can go to work, which is blatantly what this policy is all about. Go back when it's at least a lot safer than now. That will not be before September.