Here we go again, our dedicated teachers and doctors plan to hold us all to ransom over demands for more money

First I must make it clear I have friends who are teachers and doctors, but that said, let’s start.

Once again, teachers across the country are threatening to stage a walkout.

They apparently feel hard-done-by over a range of issues including “working conditions, pensions, pay, and conditions of service”.

Strikes  are planned for the autumn unless the unions come to an agreement with the Government.

When they say autumn, do they mean after the six-week paid summer holiday has finished? Or will they fit it around the week-long half-term break shortly after? Just checking so I can put it in my diary.

I on the other hand will not be getting a summer holiday, paid or otherwise.

Nor do I get a pension, pay rise, or any other of the benefits these so-called “defenders of education” enjoy with my taxes.

(PICTURE: Owen Humphreys/ PA)

During the winter I rarely glimpse daylight, or spend any quality time with my other half, as I work from the crack of dawn to 6.30pm.

I stagger home around four hours after most teachers have packed up for the day and settled on their sofa with a glass of wine.

Yes,  I know you have to mark essays and go to parents’ evenings, but that’s a small price to pay for the perks if you ask me.

And for your information, I too take work home with me and spend nights and weekends in the office, but you don’t see me complaining.

Not that it would do much good, I work in the private sector, I wouldn’t get very far.

Also, I love what I do – which brings me to my next question, isn’t that why teachers go into the profession, because they want to make a difference?

And as such, shouldn’t they be putting the welfare of their pupils before their moans and demands for more money, better working conditions (surely you cant mean MORE holiday), and fatter taxpayer-funded pensions?

I wouldn’t mind, but all the youngsters I have crossed paths with can’t even speak proper English, let alone add up. 

Instead they come out with some sort of alien drawl-  a cross between Ali G and harry Enfield’s Kevin the teenager.

My opinion - let them strike, without pay, and reduce the amount of holidays they get. I fail to see why I should fund their 13 weeks off while I am lucky to get two.

As for doctors, apparently their £110,000-a-year salaries, also paid through my taxes, aren’t good enough.

Despite being the highest-paid public sector workers in Britain, they will refuse to provide non-urgent care for 24 hours on June 21 in protest against their publicly-funded retirement deals.

Doctors  retire on annual pension of £68,000 - paid for by you.

That’s more than most private sector workers get, and around £68,000 a year more than I can expect.

Doctors fall into a slightly different category, as they consider themselves to inhabit a higher level of grandeur than the rest of us, although in my opinion they are simply another public service provider, paid for by me.

They too enjoy their fair share of perks - lavish meals and overseas conferences paid for by pharmaceutical companies, free parking, and the privilege of charging me £50 to scrawl a signature on the back of a photo when I need to get my passport renewed.

I have two things to say - One, go ahead and cancel non-urgent appointments, they should not be funded by our over-stretched NHS anyway (unmarried, unemployed teenagers, try not to get pregnant on the eve of June 21, although even if you do, thankfully your numbers clogging up the health system the following morning will be drastically reduced).

And two, any doctor who strikes on June 21 should be struck off for breaking the Hippocratic oath.

In taking this vow you have sworn to practice medicine ethically. Holding the nation to ransom, trying to squeeze more cash out of the NHS to top up your already inflated, gold-plated retirement packages is not ethical.

In other words, shut up and get on with what you are  paid for.