Steve Sinnott said every delegate would be getting a band

General secretary Steve Sinnott was spotted wearing one - as Tony Blair has been (and anyone who is anyone, not to mention all teenagers).

A Number 10 spokeswoman had said that the prime minister was given his at a lecture last Tuesday.

"Tony Blair's is cleaner than mine," Mr Sinnott told journalists.� "I've had it for five or six weeks."

He explained: "It's about 'making poverty history' and every delegate will be getting one."

'Break promises'

The teachers' playground cred will be enhanced even further though: all the delegates are� going to be getting "send my buddy to school" bands too.

These relate to a campaign to give all the world's children free schooling by 2015.

Some 100 million children around the world did not get an education, Mr Sinnott said - with girls most likely to lose out.

The best way to ensure they had it was to end poverty.

The UK government had been taking a lead but world governments as a whole had failed on an earlier pledge, made in 1990, of universal education by 2000.

"You shouldn't break promises to children," Mr Sinnott said - as every teacher knew.

So the NUT would be campaigning for a change up to the G8 summit in July.