Whether you agree or not with the strike action taken by the region’s teachers this week, which saw thousands of children getting an unscheduled day off school, you have to respect the strength of feeling behind it.

Surely no-one loses a day’s pay and risks attracting such a weight of criticism to make a protest without thinking about it deeply?

Maybe we should not be so quick to level criticism at people who do something we say we wouldn’t do – at least not without considering what actions we would be prepared to take to defend a principle, or to get that ‘better life’ we all dream of.

The deaths in the last week of hundreds drowned as small fishing boats being used to cross the Med sank left me wondering, not for the first time, just how desperate people must feel, that they clearly think it worth risking their own lives, and in some cases those of their families, to leave their homes and countries.

Most of us wish we had a ‘better’ lifestyle in terms of material goods etc (roll on that Lottery win). But I can’t really imagine how bad things have to get before I would be prepared to abandon everything I currently own except what I can carry and set off for a foreign land.

By comparison the journeys many of us do make in search of self-improvement (whether that’s moving away from home to go to Uni and accepting a huge debt burden or crossing the European Union) seem quite tame.

Maybe we should respect people who take action in search of that ‘better life’ a little more, and be more prepared to do something positive ourselves, even if it’s not so drastic as going on strike, to make our dreams become reality.