THE Government’s stance on public sector pensions shows how out of touch it is and how little respect it has for those who dedicate their professional lives to this country.

Michael Gove stated at the weekend that teachers will lose respect if they strike on Thursday, while sound-bites on the news suggest quite the opposite. The only people who have demonstrated a lack of respect for the profession is the Government, in the way it has treated teachers, lecturers and, most of all, young people.

The Governments now wants to negotiate. Why didn’t it negotiate months ago?

This only goes to reinforce the argument that industrial action works when the Government won’t listen – which is why it wants to change the laws on industrial action.

Mr Gove is suggesting parents should help out on Thursday. Parents are not stupid, they can see that it is vital to the success of their children that we have dedicated professionals in the classrooms, who are justly rewarded. A decent pension after their years of dedicated service is not too much to ask for.

The strike has been carefully timed to happen after exams have finished, yet again showing dedication to the wellbeing of students.

Richard Hind (lecturer), Alma Grove, York.

• SHORTLY public sector workers will be taking to the streets to protest at job losses, pay and pension cuts. No doubt the Government will ignore their protests.

These protests won’t be the last ones. Pressure is building on household budgets. The lack of pay rises to match the rate of inflation means that incoming money doesn’t match outgoings.

A recent survey said 20 per cent have no money after paying outgoings, a further 26 per cent said they didn’t have enough money to meet their outgoings.

Where does this leave us? Sooner or later the whole thing will collapse. The Government needs to do something, it needs to invest money in jobs and the people of this country. It seems it can always find money for other countries and wars. Now it has to find some for this one.

A cauldron of discontent is bubbling up in this country and is threatening to boil over on to the streets.

The Government would be wise to listen to its people before we have a situation like they have in Greece.

Chris Mangham, Lindsey Avenue, Acomb, York.