If you’re a client, you might not find it particularly comforting to know that I hated maths at school. I could do it, and was in the top set, taught by the infamous Mr ‘Cringe’ Loveland (‘I’m going to make you cringe, boy), a dead-shot with the board rubber, different times. I opted out of maths as soon as I could (at 16), having ditched all sciences at 14 and learned most of my mental arithmetic working behind bars in pre-calculator days. Another two years of quadratic equations would have been misery for me, as I suspect it will be for hundreds of thousands of other not-that-way-inclined teenagers. Message for all ministers, prime or otherwise: don’t try to form your or others’ children in your own, probably mis-remembered image. Let the teachers get on with it, and pay them accordingly to do it. We do need some artists and writers. Some would say it’s all we’ve got these days.
“The working-from-home illusion fades”
Are workers working from home more or less productive than those catching the 7.02am to London Bridge every day? ‘Probably sitting at home in their bleedin’ jim-jams’, said someone recently of a less-than-helpful call centre employee, the assumption being that, were they surrounded by colleagues and with a manager cracking the whip, he or she would have sorted his energy bill more efficiently.
