Readers' Best Comments

There's chaos on the messageboards, let alone on the streets, and teachers off work ill make many posters sick

Anti-war protesters are threatening to bring chaos to the city's streets as they demonstrate at a major Nato war summit at the EICC next week. Trouble broke out online, too.

Seems once again we taxpayers get to pick up the tab for the antics of the Perpetually Indignant.
A Friend of Fernando Poo

It's called democracy.
simonp

. . . and if we didn't live in a democracy with a right to protest our taxes would be much higher.
rob hadnum

What's democratic about ripping up cobble stones and throwing them at the police? These people; they are all cut from the same block. They take violent action against things they happen not to like, and dress it up as democratic protest. The protest against the banning of fox hunting, that was a protest – where thousands take to the street. These idiots; and they are over self-righteous opinionated idiots, are modern-day fascists. They seek impose their views on others and to silence views contrary to their own.
Foo

It is very difficult to have a grown-up discussion with people like you because if they disagree, you resort to calling people names or imputing views they do not have, or you express a remarkable level of insight. I have not and will not advocate violence but do believe that it is their democratic right to protest. If they break the law, then they should be punished by courts.
simonp

It's hilarious watching you lot complain about a few protesters who MAY resort to violence, while Nato leaders, who are responsible for ultra-violence, sit around a table and that's ok, eh?
Mikey, Carstairs Junction

Teachers' sick leave is forcing schools to cut costs even further as the problem leaves a £1.2m black hole.

There are many brilliant teachers, people who dedicate their professional lives to shaping our children. But it's increasingly become a vocation for people with degrees in home economics from third-rate universities. They want what they perceive as an easy option with lots of holidays. Then the reality: hard work, turn up every day, stress, need to put on a positive face to show an example > not so easy after all, go on sick.
rob hadnum

I'm glad I didn't have to work in the public sector. The strain must be terrible with so many having to take time off because they're so ill and stressed out. During my 45 years in the private sector I had three days off when my mother died, but then, I was brought up to do a day's work for a day's pay.
The Ayrshire Bard

It's far from an easy option. My wife, a primary school teacher, starts at 7:30am, finishes at 5-5:30pm, rarely has breaks owing to extra-curricular commitments, works a couple of hours most evenings and weekends and through the holidays. I make that roughly a 65-hours-a-week job, excluding the holiday paperwork and planning. And then there are the child safety implications and difficult parents (the school's in a deprived area). The money's not that good and is nowhere near what it ought to be. It's not a job I'd ever consider!
Shaggy B, Edinburgh

And finally, a word on We Will Rock You . . .

If you don't like Queen, then there is something wrong with you.
Bling Crosby, Edinburgh