And such a time came last week during the two-day stoppage by the local government unions Unison and Unite.

At the same time as pickets were protesting on the steps of Bury Town Hall, the leaders of the Tory-run council held a two-day meeting at a plush hotel complex – in the Lake District!

This despite there being a hotel with extensive conference facilities in Bury.

A room, dinner and bed and breakfast at the plush Keswick hotel where the get-together was held costs £126 per person – not bad when it comes at the expense of the council tax payers of Bury.

Had they stayed at home, it would not have cost council tax payers a penny – and to add insult to injury, councillors were also invited to take their partners along on the jaunt.

When councils plead poverty and say they cannot increase a 2.45% pay offer as there is no money available, how they can afford to waste thousands on a pointless trip to the Lakes when the same job could have been done at a fraction of the cost in their home town is beyond Mr Pendle.

And while in certain cases he has little sympathy with strikers who reject perfectly reasonable pay rise offers, when Mr Pendle hears of this kind of carry on he knows whose side he is on.


HERE are two quite different examples of answers in Key Stage 2 English examinations submitted in Chorley recently.

Example A: "If he wasent doing enthing els heel help his uncle Herry at the funfair during the day. And had stoody at nigh on other thing he did was invent new rides."

Example B: "Quickly, it became apparent that Pip was a fantastic rider: a complete natural. But it was his love of horses that led to a tragic accident."

Now which example do you think got the most marks?

Example B? Think again.

Example A got eight marks out 12 for composition and effect, example B just seven.

Amazingly, both got the same mark for sentence structure, despite one having almost no punctuation.

The headteacher highlighting these says there are many more discrepancies and the marking system for written exams is "absolutely off the radar".

What do the examiners think about spelling?

What do they think about punctuation?

What about consistency of tenses?

What about writing things that make sense?

Don't any of these things matter any more?