The committee

Or almost all of them, I didn't manage to fit Donny into the picture.

A hectic day today. Into Granton first thing to sort out a number of bits and pieces then onto Sighthill via town to the EIS Branch Committee annual AGM.

Lots to discuss there, not least the Scottish Government's withholding of a £165 million underspend from the education budget at a time of austerity where colleagues are losing their jobs and students are losing college places. I appreciate there needs to be a degree of underspend for contingency planning, but reports circulating suggest this is usually less than 1% rather than the 5.5% in this instance. In real terms that means over £130 million more that would usually be withheld was and our government are being incredibly tight lipped on why they have underspent by close to half a billion pounds across the board at a time when they are complaining about the effects of austerity cuts from Westminster. Perhaps there is a good reason for it, but if so our government are being awfully reticent about it.

Anyway, I'm delighted to report that I have been selected to be the campus secretary for the Granton Campus for another year. It's an honour to represent such a strong branch.