Peter Rhodes on reading, writing and the “dirty little secret” behind Artificial Intelligence

Only five marks out of ten, I'm afraid, for the teaching unions urging the Government to stop testing primary pupils on their times tables and to scrap intensive grammar exams.

Times tables matter. They are a gift for life and there is no better way to learn them than by rote in a class full of children at the age when their brains pick up ideas like Sellotape in a lint factory. On the other hand, grammar - at least the modern, artificially created “grammar” based on concepts such as modal verbs and fronted adverbials - is stress-inducing balderdash, guaranteed to put kids off reading and writing at a time when they should be learning to love it. Keep the times-tables, scrap the pointless grammar. Sorted.

Incidentally, when the union spokesperson says the aim of “stripping back” the curriculum is “Let’s do fewer things, but better,” was anyone else reminded of the BBC's mission statement, as spelt out in that glorious mockumentary, W1A? It went: “The fact is, this is about establishing what we do most of best and finding fewer ways of doing more of it less.” Pick the modal verbs out of that.

First, they banned smoking inside pubs. Now, they want to ban smoking in beer gardens. Next, according to weekend reports, Whitehall may consider imposing minimum alcohol charges in pubs. It's all done in the name of health but you might form the impression that politicians simply hate pubs. Maybe they see them as centres of rebellion where noisy, politically-incorrect blokes slag off governments. The best ones certainly are.