Falling standards (or not, as the case may be)
A former advisor of Tony Blair, Peter Hyman, has made headlines this week following an interview in the Times Educational Supplement. In it he bemoaned the falling standards of the youth of today, complaining that they were monosyllabic and lacking in eloquence. It seems he had some good points to make, complaining about the decision by Ofqual to remove speaking and listening from the GCSE English exam and highlighting how important it is to be able to express yourself clearly. Yet these points were overshadowed by his expression of frustration with the youth of today. It's hard to know without reading the actual interview (I can't find it online but will keep looking) exactly where his priorities lay but the articles reporting the interview have taken and run with his implied complaint that standards are falling. Standards are not falling.