Breast-feeding in the office hey?

Sounds extravagant, to be honest, whilst I'm all pro helping women balance work with family, I think the practical problem comes around when you expect employers to pay for it. Setting aside private areas for breast-feeding at work will be a challenge.

Perhaps, mothers should have that amount deducted from their pay? In all seriousness, especially as the economy is on the long road to recovery. Can we really expect firms to pay for government initiatives when they are struggling to survive?

Only this week we saw a prime example of an employer that sacked literally anyone over 65 before the new pension regulations come in, despite having been working in that particular company for decades. It demonstrates the lack of reality that government has with practicalities of working life. More importantly, how sad for those people, who have given so many years service to be thrown on the scrap heap so brutally. Politicians, that is the kind of thing you need to stop, the stupid laws that is.

Now, if no one told you, this was because of EU law, note, not new coalition. So, you can forgive Mr Cameron, I suspect he has a very long road to go, before he can turn around crazy decisions like this, but at least he is starting.

That said, the one thing I don't understand is why no government, regardless of political colour, doesn't introduce legislation to insist that all governments must leave budget surplus on exiting office. Otherwise, all that seems to happen is one party comes in, spends all the money. Another comes in and has to cut everything as a result and look bad.

If you ask me, reckless spending should be outlawed.

So what took them so long?

Can you believe that for the past near 14 years teachers and head teachers have had to bow to unruly pupils because of the previous government's insistence that pupil rights, even if they misbehaved were more important than discipline in the classroom?

Well, I suspect like many of you I fundamentally disagree with that nonsense. I have to add I am particularly impressed by Michael Gove for trying to 'turn that mighty ship around' and do something to restore a sense of 'value' in the classroom.

Now, it is not the 'value' in a monetary sense I'm talking about, rather, the kind of respect for teacher, school and peer that many youngsters today clearly lack. There are probably a whole host of other factors like lack of father figure, single parent family, you name it. Some might say, oh don't be too hard on that, to be honest, I'm not.

What I will not do however, is make excuses for people or for kids that seem to think they can do what they like and there are no consequences.

Be it the student protesters who unnecessarily destroyed public and private property last week in Westminster, or just unruly kids at schools who think they are King. 'It ends now' as Kevin Costner said in the movie Wyatt Earp.

Indeed, we need our own Marhsall Earp and he comes in the form of Michael Gove MP, the government's Education Secretary. When you look at the radical agenda he is about to outline to Parliament this week, people should really sit up a listen.

Not only is it dynamic, it is just what the teaching community needs, let alone the country. We in Britain surely want to produce highly skilled graduates, school leavers, you name it, so that they can help themselves in the future but also the economy too.

All too often, people fail to recognise the importance of 'doing the right thing', in this instance, i sincerely believe Mr Gove is doing just that and fathers, dads and parents up and down the land should get behind him and show our support. Because that ladies and gentlemen is what is going to make the difference between average and excellence.

You decide..

BT is crap, so are men when it comes to their health

Now, I'm usually a fan of British Telecom (BT), but I have to say, this time I'm not. Their broadband service is absolutely terrible. Fathers, dads and parents in blogosphere I tell you do not buy BT broadband it is really poor. A little like the general state of men when it comes to their health. Totally out of touch with what is going on, not really sure what to fix or how to change old habits. A match made in heaven some might say! (I wonder how many men work at BT) Anyway..

It is true apparently, British men are more likely to die from poor lifestyle choices, like drinking too much booze, not enough exercise or just simple things like not eating healthy diets. You would have thought most of this would come naturally to men. Being typically egocentric and interested in providing for a family, they aren't much use if they are off sick and in bed?

So how hard is it for modern men and fathers to really sit up and think about what they eat, how much exercise they do? Surely it cannot be that difficult?

I learned the other day that apparently children now 'need' the internet to do their homework. I laughed. Plagiarism here we come. Ok, so I'm not trying to be too negative here, but let's face it, if a kid has the choice between reading a book and learning something, or quickly googling a topic, I think I know where my money is.

Teachers were off on their political bandwagons as usual complaining that 'disadvantaged' this 'disadvantaged' that. Like they would know? Did you know, and this is an interesting fact for most fathers out there. Teachers in the UK are some of the best paid people in the land, perhaps they could share the love and oh by the way, donate some of their pay perhaps to help those most disadvantaged?

Yep, that's right, so when they start rambling on about the 'terrible cuts' coming to the education budget, why not ask when you are next at a parents evening, how much is the school wage bill or what is the average salary? Soon you'll be able to find out courtesy of Messrs Cameron and Clegg. You will be able to see what proportion of the School funding goes to pay, pension and other benefits.

Whilst we all want 'the best' teachers, reading about a Head Teacher in London earning £250,000 a year at a Primary school made me nearly choke on my weetabix. 250 grand I said?! Yep, that's right, £100,000 more than the British Prime Minister.

Now I don't know about you, but to me that is excessive. I don't care how good he or she is, let's get with reality people. I think most parents, in particular fathers would not be happy hearing that. I know I wasn't.

So the whole point of this post today is action. If you aren't happy about something, do something about it. It is your choice in life, your health, your broadband, your child's school. If you don't who will? The tooth fairy?

IDS is right, so is the head of CEOP & Co..

When you hear Iain Duncan-Smith speak, you tend to listen. Not because he is one of the world's greatest orators, rather, because he speaks sense.

This week he suggested that children from broken families and single parent households, on average saw an increase in violent behaviour. Moreover, that the cost to the taxpayer, that is you and me was exorbitant. Some £100billion a year. Now to me, i have a problem with that.

I don't deny that life isn't easy. We all have our challenges, our ups and downs. But, not once did I ever break a public bus stop, steal, burgle, cause trouble. Why? Because my parents installed values and respect into me. Not by beating me, rather, talking, educating and explaining the difference between 'right' and 'wrong'.

To hear that the previous government had done all in it's power to undermine marriage, I found this saddest of all. To think small kids are really upset and traumatised by divorce and parental arguments. The idea that a government would deliberately favour unmarried people over married confuses me.

Put simply, it is a no-brainer. We all know that marriage, (when it works and in general that is in a higher percentile of cases, does work well). Most families are more stable, there is less criminal behaviour from children when they grow up and society is better. David Cameron, the British Prime Minister has regularly argued that the broken society is having a direct impact, not just on social well being, family harmony, but rather the wider economy.

To me unfortunately in Britain today, we are confronted with a kind of 'false reality' that grips huge swathes of the country and population. People are so used to having it 'easy' they don't realise the value of what they have.

Take for example, the news that people living on benefits are given more money than most people who work, so they can live in plush houses in city centres. Moreover, the crazy rule that when housing large families, councils insist on a bedroom per child. When i was younger we had bunk beds. I don't understand why councils can't be more efficient and 'realistic' about the true costs of living. It is almost like 'funny money' to people that work in the civil service as aptly highlighted by Sir Philip Green.

I guess what it comes down to is a fundamental shift in attitude. People in Britain need to realise the value of what they have and just how much better off they are than 80% of the world!

As for children, I do believe it is time for discipline in the classroom. Only yesterday a colleague was telling me about a step daughter who had been bullied to the point of passing out at school. Not by one girl, but a gang and regularly. When the school was told and repeatedly told, it was bureaucratic as hell. Teachers weren't interested, so the police had to come in.

In the end, rather than expel the bullies, they asked the girl, the victim to leave the school. That to me underlines how Britain has become. Without trying to sound doom and gloom. I think the point here is that British society needs to stand up once and be counted for decency and integrity.

Something I believe we have all too often ignored in pursuit of self preservation..he says.. :)