I dunno, is there a special time of the year when all the unions have their own separate get togethers with the express aim of saying stupid things? Because there seems to have been a rash of such sillyness recently, with the latest sillyness emerging from the NUT.

Teachers have voted to oppose military recruitment activities in schools if they employ “misleading propaganda”.

Young people must be given a true picture of Army life, not a “marketised version”, the National Union of Teachers conference heard.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) denies actively recruiting in schools but says it does visit to raise awareness when invited in by head teachers.

Obviously, there are important questions to be asked about military recruiting in schools, should that be happening. But let’s not let the questions be asked by halfwits such as this:

Paul McGarr, a teacher from east London, said only when recruiting materials gave a true picture of war would he welcome them into his school.

These would have to say: “Join the Army and we will send you to carry out the imperialist occupation of other people’s countries,” Mr McGarr said.

“Join the Army and we will send you to bomb, shoot and possibly torture fellow human beings in other countries.

So, what Mr McGarr is saying is that the Army would be welcome in his classroom, but only iif they stood there and let him abuse them by hurling slogans and allegations at them. By that standard, union reps would only be allowed in anywhere if they stood there while people accused them of supporting communism in China and the suppression of dissent in Cuba – more allegations that are base misrepresentations of what they’re doing and trying to do.

Speaking of base misrepresentations, it’s a bit rich for a group of teachers to be alleging that the Army ‘market’ their recruiting materials… Have you seen the teacher recruitment stuff? Saying that all your time will be spent with smiling, interested children, using innovative teaching techniques and top-flight equipment. When you’d actually be stuck in a damp, cramped building, reading from 30 year old textbooks and dodging things that the wee fuckers are throwing at you, before begging for early retirement just to make the pain stop…

Yes, army recruiting materials aren’t very representative of the job, but the same is true of every recruiting programme for every single job out there. And the one for teaching is probably the most blatant distortion…