EDUCATION chairman Eddie Playfair has threatened legal action against two Waltham Forest councillors.
He has sent the legal broadside to Conservative councillor Michael Fish and SDP councillor Philip Arnold.
It follows comments they made at the last council meeting concerning his involvement with the teachers' protest over Education Secretary Kenneth Baker's recent proposed Bill.
In a letter to Mr Arnold, he says: "I am particularly concerned that you are reported to have said I 'instructed teachers to strike'."
Mr Playfair, a teacher, emphasises that he made his position quite clear in a letter to the Guardian, following similar criticism when he organised a press conference on the Baker Bill.
"Under the circumstances, therefore, I am very concerned that you should choose to repeat this falsehood, which I regard as very damaging. I would suggest that you may wish to clarify or, perhaps, withdraw the comment.
"If you feel unable to do this, I would ask what evidence you have that I have in any way sought to encourage teachers in Waltham Forest to take industrial action.
"I am not by nature litigious, but I may well be taking legal advice if you cannot clarify the situation satisfactorily."
Mr Arnold, replying that he would "strenuously defend" himself against any legal action, has told Mr Playfair: "As chairman of the committee responsible for maintaining the borough's schools, it was your duty to have put the interests of the education service before your support of your union's action.
"For my part, I consider it a deplorable breach of duty for you to have failed to do so, and you can hardly now be heard to complain that you have been accused of 'encouraging' the action concerned."
Conservative leader Michael Lewis commented: "I really think members should not be so sensitive. It was up to him to answer the comments when they were made. The opportunity was there."
One of the interesting points about WFRAG is that as far as I can discover it rarely if ever claimed Liberal/SDP support but often said it had Socialist (that is Labour) members as well as an evident Conservative hinterland. However, when Paul Devaney discovered an illegal ratepayers' election leaflet that we could trace to its source, the printers the paper came from was one the Liberals had also been patronising.
