Inappropriate Behaviour

The electors of Glenrothes are going to do a great deal of damage next Thursday, however they vote. If they elect the candidate for the Scottish National Party the earth will rain down faster on the coffin lid of Labour in Scotland, helping to bury a corrupted and rotting regime that afflicts us all. If Labour hold one of their safest seats in the United Kingdom the triumphalism, the vainglorious assertions of the Leader, whose only claim to democratic validity is provided by their next door neighbours, will be embarrassing; the Leader always is embarrassing of course,
but garbage about 'getting on with the job from morning to night with hard working families' will have the bins overflowing.

The menace embodied in choosing a head teacher to stand for Labour is typical of the low-level bullying that is used by the Party throughout the country. Head teachers are powerful people in communities. When the Labour apparatchik, hand-picked by Brown (sorry, that's an image bordering on repellent) declares he is 'standing up to be counted' Stalin's remark that it is not who votes but who counts that is important crosses the mind. The Labour candidate is going to be a disappointed head teacher if he fails to become a Westminster MP. He will have been disappointed (and we all know that disappointing and unhelpful behaviour has consequences in school)by the parents of children in full time education.

The state education system is a watchful, recording network spanning age groups and extensive local areas. It is quite wrong for any head teacher to ask for such a valuable favour as a vote from so many who, rightly or wrongly, might feel their family's fortunes affected by its refusal. The potential for improper pressure, even the possibility of the appearance of it, is to be avoided in any mature democratic system. It isn't a matter of rules and regulations and their observance, it is a matter of public comportment by an already public figure: 'After 37 years teaching in the area, to many voters he will always be "Sir".' reports the Herald. He should have behaved appropriately and avoided such public engagement in partisan politics.