Hugh Reilly: Tall order for Larry to keep teachers sweet

Instead, the new supreme leader of the country’s largest teaching organisation was appointed by a specially convened meeting of the EIS national council. As a confirmed socialist, Larry will stoically accept the doubling of his salary at a time when the teaching profession is enduring a wage freeze. Cut-price supply staff can be confident that Larry will continue to share their pain.

Somewhat graciously, he stated that Ronnie Smith “would be a hard act to follow”. Beyonce uttering that phrase on taking to the stage after Jedward would have been more believable, given the mass defections over what many EIS members perceived to be Smith’s abject betrayal of their pay and conditions.

I rather liked Smith, even if his demeanour eerily resembled that of John Le Mesurier’s Sergeant Wilson in Dad’s Army. Always soft-spoken and eloquent, he was a pioneer of the passive-aggressive approach to hostile questions posed by media friends of the anti-teaching brigade.

My one regret is that we never met. He once complained I had authored an erroneous comment regarding the voting procedure at an agm. I had written the piece in good faith, based on a hitherto reliable source. Unfortunately, when I investigated the complaint, it was evident that my mole had either been drunk or had wilfully misrepresented what had taken place. Embarrassed, I phoned Smith to apologise but was told he was “in the loft”. None of my subsequent calls were returned. Sorry, Ronnie.

From my limited encounters with Flanagan, I imagine he will be a more forthright defender of EIS members. When I sat on the Glasgow EIS committee, Larry always made positive contributions. Despite the odd heated discussion, I never once saw him lose his cool. I wasn’t present when, as an acting deputy headteacher at Hillhead High school, he was assaulted by a ned. After such a harrowing experience, being badgered by Gordon Brewer on Newsnight Scotland over possible industrial action will be a breeze.

His eight years as a Glasgow city councillor undoubtedly left its mark on him. His monotone delivery with a judicious sprinkling of trade-union-speak phrases such as “aspirations”, “brothers and sisters”, and “at this moment in time”, identified him as a potential Labour Party high-flier. Sadly, following a dispute related to implementation of the poll tax, he was suspended without limit of time. Later, when it became clear that having socialist principles harmed one’s progress in the Labour Party, Flanagan resigned from the organisation.

Flanagan takes the reins of a union horse with a firecracker tied to its tail and bangers with fizzing blue touchpaper up its nostrils. His first task will be bring disaffected groups such as ReclaimEIS back inside the tent and endeavour to initiate policies that will halt the haemorrhaging of members to rival unions.

His second priority is to convince teachers that the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) possesses a semblance of integrity. As one of the key players supporting the innovative curriculum – he was the EIS representative on the management board overseeing the implementation of CfE – he will be aware that many classroom practitioners view him with deep suspicion.

The new head honcho faces many difficult challenges. Teachers, in common with other public sector workers, are disgruntled that their standard of living is being depressed through a double whammy of a salary cap and a proposed increase in pension contributions. Wholescale implementation of the controversial McCormac Report will send dominies over the edge and it is up to Flanagan to mobilise maximum resistance to changes that worsen teachers’ conditions of employment.

In the final analysis, a general secretary is only as powerful as his members. Last November, the impressive one day of action that closed almost every school in the country showed that the profession will not accept meekly any erosion of the hard-won working arrangements of the McCrone agreement in 2001.

Good luck, Larry.