In the bizarre times in which we live some bankers and accountants (No! Don’t laugh!) are spouting some nonsense claiming that a lack of maths skills cost us £2.4bn each year. Think of a number any number! Of course by maths they mean “core numeracy skills” (whatever they are!) so we are talking arithmetic rather than mathematics. Have they never heard of the numerous maths failures like Richard Branson? Of course non of this is new it has all been tried before with (surprise surprise!) the inevitable failure. Are you bored yet?