Round in pointless circles

The real disappointment watching the BBC breakfast news programme this morning was not hearing about the lack of improvement in literacy rates but the discussion about it. A children’s author and a woman who runs a website for parents came on to talk about it and the sum of their advice was to make reading enjoyable and not a chore. Great but how should you do that? No answer because the slot for the deep discussion had ended and it was probably time for some failed soap star or wannabe reality TV personality to come on and plug their career. Or maybe Heather Mills might have popped up and started shouting again - a ratings winner if nothing else.

The problem is that there are plenty of people telling us that reading is not improving, in fact it seems to be very topical to moan about it right now pointing to the figures stating that too many children cannot read. But there is nowhere near the same number of people trying to provide answers and help parents tackle the problem.