I recently saw an ad by the Teacher Development Agency for new teachers. It struck me as odd as there now so many teachers who don't have a hope of finding work mainly due to the new workforce rules which allow non qualified staff into classes.

I sent them an e-mail asking for information on how much they spend on advertising. Thee figures blew me away.

They spent an unbelievable £8, 082,722.42 on advertising in several formats during 2007-2008. This represents a £500,000 increase from the previous year. That would be enough to employ almost 400 teachers. The money that is thrown at these education quangos is becoming obscene.

Out of curiosity I had a look at what sort of budget the above department has. I came across some interesting figures such as:

"We are able to provide the cost of taxi travel claimed by Departmental officials from administrative budgets for 2007-08 and 2006-07 as follows:"

2007-08 £247,738
2006-07 £268,857



"The data provided is based on rail bookings dealt with by DCSF's Business Travel Provider Carlson Wagonlit Travel. Location details are not recorded for travel using hire car and grey fleet, only the mileage is recorded.

The annual travel costs for rail travel between sites are as follws"

April 08-Feb 09 - £840,984

2007-8 - £834,433

2006-7 £1,254,536



"Details of expenditure on private sector consultants incurred by the Department in 2007-2008 is £4,863,000.00.

The expenditure recorded relates to admin costs and does not include costs that may be charged to a programme account."



"The Office for Government and Commerce (OGC) framework agreements for Organisational Consultancy ? Organisational Development Education and Children?s Services, provide rates across a range of consultancy grades including Junior Consultant, Consultant, Senior Consultant, Principal Consultant, and Managing Director/Partner. The daily rates differ for each organisation, but, across all the agreements, the range is £475 to £1900, as at April 2008."



So we are all losing our jobs because we are not "economically viable" but the department can spend almost £5 million on consultants in one year. The more I look at stuff like this the angrier I get.

With all the talk about budget restraint and belt tightening while supply teachers see their jobs fly out the window I had an interesting look at the deadweight GTC's budget for 2009-10. Read them and weep:

Registration: £4.4m

Communications - £3.7m

Regulation: £3.6m

Governanace, fee collection and administration: £3.5

Networks and the TLA: £3.4m

Policy and research: £2.5m

So that's a total of a staggering £21 million of teachers' registration fees. Of that they are spending £3.7m on "communications" which I assume means advertising etc. Then there all the other departments such as OFSTED and ESTYN, the TDA, the DfES, the Department for Children, Schools and Families, and so on. If it wasn't serious it would be funny.

'It's not torture. Pyramids can be used as a control technique... Don't cheerleaders all over America form pyramids six to eight times a year?'

Guy Womack, defence lawyer for a US soldier court martialed in the Abu Ghraib detainee abuse scandal.

"Servicing the target."

US Army term for killing the enemy.

'Shortening the list of politically sensitive individuals by means other than detention.'

Assassination of political enemies, as described by the South African State Security Council in the Apartheid era.

Paul Meyser, Lehman Brothers;

"We must shift America from a needs to a desire culture. People must be trained to desire. People must want new things before the old have been entirely consumed. We must shape a new mentality in America. Man's desire must overshadow his needs."

Edward Bernays (one of the forefathers of modern propaganda) in 1928,

"Conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organised habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in a democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of this government."

"Everybody's worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there's a really easy way: stop participating in it. "

Noam Chomsky

Referring to the bombing campaign in Afghanistan in 2001, he said,

"The squeeze will carry on until the people of the country themselves recognize that this is going to go on until they get the leadership changed."

[The deliberate targeting of civilians is a war crime under Geneva Conventions.]

I was reminded of a quote of a US ambassador during the Reagan years when he talked about the "unpeople" of the world living "miserable lives" and therefore not important if they are the victims of our crimes.

I was thinking of this when watching the news reporting the death of 5 UK soldiers who were killed by an Afghani police officer. We had the interviews of family members and fellow soldiers. It was followed by today's news of Gordon Brown's recommitment of his intentions to keep British troops in Afghanistan. Clips from his speech were followed up by interviews with a military 'analyst' and the mother whose son is in Afghanistan. This took place on a so-called 'alternative' news channel.

The victims of crimes usually have a different view of things. What is outstanding about all this coverage is that even the concept of asking the local population for their views on what should be done in their country is unthinkable. What would we think if a country invaded the UK, killed a few thousand people in bombing raids and then discussed amongst themselves what the next course of action should be but no matter what that they should support their 'boys on the frontline'? Also you would have the President or Prime Minister of that country arguing, quite rightly, that continuing the occupation is necessary to stop international terrorism. What would we as the victims think of that?

Does anyone even realize how the Taliban came into existence? Well, they were a very disparate, small group in Afghanistan opposing a government of Noor Mohammed Taraki. His government instituted such outrageous reforms such as legalizing unions, canceling all debts of farmers, introducing progressive tax and giving men and women the chance to go to school. Even after the Soviet army left in 1989 most of the local population fought on the side of the government for another 3 years but succumbed to the seemingly bottomless pot of the estimated $6 billion war chest provided to the fanatics courtesy of the CIA. We all know what happened after that.

The "unpeople" who have a history like that might have a more relevant opinion on their own affairs if anyone bothered to report it.

I was watching some morning TV today and was watching a mouthpiece from British Airways give his thoughts on BA returning its first ever loss. He said BA was going to "reduce its cost base". That is an original euphemism for job losses, I have to admit. He then went on to proudly boast that they have shed thousands of jobs and will probably shed a lot more.

What sort of economy have we created when you can now publicly boast you are going to sack thousands of people?

The UK is plunging towards depression if it isn't there already. And yet,despite this the major political parties are racing to the bottom in announcing how many cuts they are going to make. The lunatics are definitely running the asylum. The true unemployment rate could be closer to an unbelievable 25%. This would make it on par with the Great Depression of the 1930s which lasted almost a decade.