...the friday bake

...friday is quickly becoming baking day in the mordue/hill household. last week was chocolate cake for christine's birthday, the week before chocolate covered flapjack, the week before cheese scones and lemon drizzle cake. all good (although must keep an eye on the weight as a consequence!)

anyway today has resulted in lemon and poppyseed muffins and these bad boys above. it's kind of a chocolate brownie with a cheesecake swirl running through it. it tastes good but the lime cheesecake swirl has all but disappeared for the most part and i can't taste lime

so while doing this i had time to contemplate my current ethical dilemma. the union that most of my lecturer colleagues belong to have announced a strike in support of the teachers (i think - the information wasn't clear). now, i'm not in the union so either have to join to legitimately remain away from work or cross the picket line. i'm not a fan of unions to be fair despite having being in unison at the council. i don't think the actions they take, and in particular strike action, is effective in our contemporary society. if there is a problem with michael gove's 'direction of travel', and in general i'd agree there is, then vote this current shower out at the next election. like it or not they got to form a government because, i'd suggest, of an ineffective labour party who have left socialist ideals behind. they may be reclaiming some of that (??) time will tell.

i've decided not to join the union and cross the picket line and the reason is primarily a statistical as well as ideological one. first point to make is that as an individual i'll make my own decision on the evidence - thank you very much and won't be moved because a group of people say i should be - not into that. the figures for me stack up like this. the NUT went ahead with strike action based on a 40% turnout where 92% voted for strike action (that equates to 37% of their members electing to strike). worse still the NASUWT went on strike based on a 27% turnout where 82% votes to strike (that equates to 22% of their members electing to strike).

this, to me, does not define a mandate to strike. if you average out the 'yes' vote from those two unions it means that less than one third of the members voted for strike action. that's not right - you can't strike when most of the people either think they shouldn't strike or are apathetic about issue in question.

based on that i'm not prepared to join a union i don't want to join and lose a day's pay i don't want to lose over an issue that the people it directly effects don't, for the majority, appear interested in.

.....and don't get me started on the bloody firemen again ;-)