‘You must have been really good at maths at school’ and bet you love numbers’ I often hear. The answer is the same as my reaction to this ridiculous idea, ‘no, no, no!’ I hated maths and gave it up, along with all the sciences, as soon as I could (at 16 and 14 respectively, in my day). This is typical of most in power, in this case the PM, usually education ministers (of whom we’ve had 5 in the last year), that what they half remember as being good for them must be good for the current batch of kids. Utter nonsense. We should be encouraged to do study and thrive at what we’re good at and/or enjoy. We’re as much a country of the Beatles, Monty Python and Harry Potter as we are of the bloke who invented the internet, so need to nurture both the literate and numerate. Just making them do it won’t make them either any good at or love it more. As for me, I learned to use a calculator (not around when I did my ‘O’ levels) and to type on a computer. When I needed to.
“Tariffs through time: have they ever worked?”
History may not repeat itself, but it certainly rhymes. Is what Trump is doing as ‘unprecedented’ as every headline proclaims? I’m sure other wiser writers have spotted some of these historical echoes, but let’s remember some headlines from US history.
