We enter another week, yet another week, of industrial action.

Yes, it’s the teachers again.

The upside is that the primary sector got themselves sorted last week. So one assumes that although they are separate claims, the broad aim is the same and one hopes a similar sort of outcome can't be far away.

The primary deal seems a generous one with the one-off payments, the non-contact time and the large wage increases.

Although it's well earned, I still struggle with the idea that everyone gets it, no matter how brilliant or appalling you are. It's not a world I have ever entertained entering.

The union chased me at the age of 16, back in 1982 when I got my first job. They sort of assumed I would want to join and pay their fees.

I didn’t, of course, and it was my first encounter with the union representative at work, who became very affronted that, somehow, I couldn’t see the world the way he did.

This has always been the problem with unions. The moment they work out you aren't one of them, they get aggressive.

There's no acceptance that there might be another way for it to work. It sort of told me, even at that age, all I needed to know about unions and their modus operandi.

Anyway, as a parent I can tell you I am well and truly over it.

School is important and we have a daughter who thinks school is important.

I know it’s unfashionable these days to think that way, far less want to turn up regularly. But this generation have been shafted in the most appalling way. Between covid and lockdowns and illness and strikes, the amount of school that has been missed is criminal.

You can't encourage success if you can't be bothered opening the gates. And this week, yet again, we stay at home.

In my entire life, as a student and as a parent, teachers have not been happy.

No one in unionised employment has been happy, so what does that say about the model?

Mix in the fact that our education system, in terms of performance and results, is now criminally bad and it's not a great advertisement.

Yet again they're expecting parents to find kid cover and, more importantly, yet again they expect kids to stay away while teachers prioritise their circumstances.