DIM BRITAIN

There can be no more savage indictment of the poor educational standards currently plaguing the UK than the following gem from the website of The Times in London.

"Only days after agreeing to help bail out the ailing Chinese Super League, the new British sponsor has had to apologise to the people of China for referring to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau as separate countries on its website.

"The new sponsor, iPhox, also scored an own-goal when it listed the language of Taiwan as Taiwanese and failed to list Chinese as a language anywhere on its site, other points that angered the Chinese Football Association and led to an outpouring of rage in mainland internet chatrooms.

"The internet telephone company temporarily closed down sections of its Chinese-language site to make changes, and carried an apology on its homepage."

Considering that Britain's supposed to be a knowledge-based economy, it's a pity that whoever wrote the website copy seems unable to use a simple research tool such as Google.

Are we now paying the price for years of lip service to social equality in UK education rather than the pursuit of academic excellence?

I bet whoever wrote that website rubbish knows the names of all the house mates in the last series of Big Brother or all the tracks on the Sugar Babes' album, yet appears to know diddly squat about the world he/she inhabits.

'Mr' Blair goes on about "education, education, education" yet sends his own children to state schools so elite they are private in all but name.

It's a typical mealy-mouthed 'New Labour' lawyers' response to a social issue. It's a question of 'do as I say, not as I do'.

Britain's governing class is quite happy to let the ordinary people play Russian roulette with their children's futures by educating them in the hit and miss state sector, while most of the great and the good take no such chances.