"Almost one million Scots are unable to read and write properly, "

So report The Times summing up an "influential group of educationalists who have called for an overhaul of the country’s approach to literacy." Now I could bemoan the fall in educational standards in Scotland and indeed the rest of the UK since 1997 and before. But instead I will use it as an opportunity to remind you of just one of the problems with the third of the three Rs - Arithmetic - that Gordon Brown has had this year.

There was the occasion in January when he said that the typical family would be £5 a week better off "that's £275 a year". The last time I checked, 5 x 52 was 260, but what do I know?


So maybe Gordon Brown's 2007 admission that

"I did maths at school and for one year at university but I don't think I was ever very good at it - and some people would say it shows."

was one of the few honest things this most incompetent Prime Minister has ever said.