‘We don’t need moar maths – we have smartphones!’

 

A speech by the PM, not even yet given, has made it onto the print editions’ front pages and thus graces the headline concocted by ‘staff’: “Newspaper headlines: Nurses’ strike warning and PM’s maths promise” (link). Blimey! That’ll lose him female votes, that will!

I’ll take a closer look at this yet-to-be-given speech, but wonder why the general public seems to be unwilling to weep for nurses. Not even the mighty MSM appear to find this strike worthy of loadsa pixels. Btw – that junior doctors’ strike is over, I understand. So where are the reports about how much this affected us peasants? 

But firstly, a look at two articles, placed next to each other on The Times’ online page early this morning. There’s a little piece by David Cameron – you surely remember him! – who urges the government to shell out more money because “Britain risks losing out to China unless it steps up its foreign aid programme, David Cameron has warned.” (link, paywalled). Yes, sure, why not spend even more money we don’t have if it makes one look good on the international stage!

The other piece shows that some mandarins apparently have got too much time on their hands. Thus they are now pondering and then leaking their thoughts on what to do about ‘the China threat’: “Navy could base permanent warship in Asia to counter China threat” (link, paywalled). Yes, that’s correct: this is about stationing one (1) warship in that area:

“Britain could permanently deploy a major warship to the Indo-Pacific, under plans being discussed in Whitehall. Military chiefs are determined to strengthen the UK’s armed forces in Asia, despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine highlighting the weaknesses of British land forces in Europe. Discussions are being held about permanently stationing at least one Type-31 frigate in the Indo-Pacific — a move that would reverse five decades of declining British military power east of Suez.” (link, paywalled)

Strewth – one frigate? The Chinese will shake in their boots! This’ll be one of the new frigates. Take note of the dates:

“The Royal Navy will receive five Type-31 frigates by 2028, with the ships becoming operational two years later. Steel has been cut on the first two ships, HMS Venturer and HMS Active. The three remaining ships will be named HMS Formidable, HMS Bulldog and HMS Campbeltown.” (link, paywalled)

Oh dear. The ships haven’t even been built yet! Still, yon mandarins think the Chinese will sit on their hands for seven years until “we” send one (!) frigate? Really? Do we even have enough money to pay for those ships, and will they function properly or sit in dry docks like those destroyers and yon aircraft carrier? Crikey.

I think these mandarins, Cameron and the editors publishing such stuff urgently need a remedial course in ‘maths’. It’s not too late and we can obviously not wait for Sunak’s ‘initiative’. I humbly suggest that it’s not just the ‘anti-maths’ mindset which needs to change but that schools need to teach basic arithmetic.

The Times’ editors have helpfully accompanied their article with an image of ‘maths’ on a school blackboard which is clearly meant to keep the ‘fear of maths’ alive. I think you can see it (here) even though the whole thing is paywalled.

Perhaps Sunak means people need to learn about ‘log’ and ‘sinus’, but I believe it’s far more necessary to teach the simple, basic methods of  addition and subtraction, of multiplication and division and the calculation of percentages. I’d even throw in some basic stats because, as we recall, the ‘experts’ are always happily using stats to bamboozle us – remember the hapless BJ trying to look’ scientific’? 

I think the ‘anti-maths’ rot goes much deeper. There’s not just the image of maths being for nerds and something to be shunned by all those clever Oxbridge students and later in the ‘corridors of power’ that is Whitehall.

There’s also the general attitude that ‘girls don’t do maths because it’s too hard’. This attitude, so entrenched, is predominant in the minds of teachers who are mostly female. One does not need to be a genius to understand that those who’ve never learned maths because it’s too hard won’t be able or willing to teach it.

Moreover, thanks to firstly permitting pupils to use pocket calculators and now thanks to the permanent use of smartphones, the attitude has switched from ‘maths is too hard’ to ‘who needs maths anyway?’ After all, smartphones are doing all the work commonly filed under ‘applied maths’ e.g. comparison of prices of things we buy such as food, clothes, services. 

I leave you with a shameful example of wokeness which caught my eyes because it’s about the Brecon Beacons in Wales:

“The national park has been renamed in response to climate change, because managers decided that the image of wood-burning braziers, from which its name is taken, is no longer appropriate as they try to make the area net zero by 2035. It will be known by its original name of Bannau Brycheiniog, which park bosses said was an additional commitment to the Welsh language.” (link, paywalled)

Words simply fail me! This isn’t about making people stop having  bonfires all the time, this is simply about removing the image of a burning brazier from the parks’ logo: what a way to achieve Net Zero! And then I saw this:

“Catherine Mealing-Jones, chief executive of the authority, said: “Given that we’re trying to provide leadership on decarbonisation, a giant burning brazier is not a good look.” (link, paywalled)

This fully justified my cynicism, not just regarding ‘Net Zero’ but about wimmin in ‘high’ positions who haven’t got a clue but push ‘Teh Agenda’. Showing leadership in ‘decarbonisation’ by removing an old, iconic logo? You couldn’t make it up!

That’s all I have for today. I predict that Sunak’s speech will have a ‘net zero’ effect but there’s hope: if exchanging a logo is sufficient to achieve ‘Net Zero’ then let’s create many more logos rather than make our daily lives a misery. Have a good day.



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