TV coverage of the first reshuffled government cabinet meeting reminded me of school days many years ago.

Repeating the prime minister-led fictitious figures on how many new hospitals the government were to build and how many new nurses and police officers were going to be provided, the ministers sounded akin to a class of primary school children reciting multiplication tables.

The difference being that the recital of multiplication tables by the children was a means of learning and remembering accepted numerical facts, not a demonstration of “devoted obedience” to the teacher?

Alan Kelly, Ferryhill.