Politicians or muppets?

Malala Yousafzai is the young girl from Pakistan who was shot in the head by the Taliban. She was shot for daring to stand up for the rights of girls to an education. In an interview yesterday, she showed enormous maturity for a 16 year old. Her point is actually rather straightforward. Why should your gender preclude you from the right to an education just because the Taliban wishes to inflict their own distorted view of equality on to everybody else. While this extraordinary girl is putting the rest of us to shame, our country continues to plummet in its standards of numeracy and literacy. In our country, education is free for all but not taken seriously whereas in countries like Pakistan, education is the preserve of the male with the girls desperate to gain access. On the day that the OECD reveals that our standards of numeracy and literacy have dropped even further, it is difficult to understand why we have become so blase about the value of these basic skills. You can have all the computers, tablets, mobiles and the rest but, in the end, you still need to read what's on them and write coherently when using them. It is our skills base which is being eroded and nobody seems to be overly concerned. They should be. Much is now spoken regarding our capacity to compete in a modern world. Without the basic abilities to read, write and execute simple calculations, we are disadvantaged before we even start. Jeremy Paxman is reported as being annoyed at the way in which David Cameron is trying to popularise the impending centenary of the Great War. To not mark the event would be a grave error while striking the balance will inevitably fail to satisfy the interpretations of everybody. Paxman of course is more well known for his role on Newsnight. Last night's edition was closed by none other than the Cookie Monster. The latter is said to be coming to Children's TV aided and abetted by his friend Elmo. This I think is a step in the right direction because for all its criticism, Sesame Street was highly educational. My generation benefited from some of the funniest characters you could imagine with clever use of education running through the programme. Maybe then, it is going to take a 16 year old school girl from Pakistan and a carbohydrate crazed muppet to make our politicians see the light of day. Everybody now seems to be hooked in to sugar so perhaps the Cookie Monster isn't such a bad choice after all. As for Malala, only a hardened soul could fail to be moved by her grace, eloquence and dignity.