If I did ‘the’ research I could probably claim that making children go to school with plastic bags over their feet would make them more responsive to learning.

My research into this, and my real main contention, is that classes are overpopulated and understaffed. Maybe, just maybe, if that issue was addressed directly then children might do better.

Our youth are passive and apathetic because the people who are supposed to be in charge are the last people to actually do anything constructive to solve matters.

Talk to people who lived through the Blitz, or grew up during the Depression. Singing was sometimes the only way to get through the night. In her 90s, my grandmother could sit down with a group of contemporaries she had never met and spend hours singing songs they shared. I had to bring songbooks and a big bottle of wine to get a group of people my age to six Christmas songs together.

It’s ironic that Mr. Wilcox brings Cowell into the mix, while supporting his main contention: that only those who can make money for some large corporation have the right to open their mouths.

And we wonder why youth are passive and apathetic. Get told to shut up often enough when you are young, and chances are eventually you won’t bother to open your mouth.

I’d much rather the £10M went towards diminishing class sizes to allow teachers more personal time with their children than precious class time wasted by the whole school sat in an assembly room singing Kum-By-Bloody-Ah whether it be note perfect or not. That’s not going to help anything at all apart from raising a lot more disillusioned pop-wannabes for Simon Cowell to exploit.

So maybe that’s why he’s suggested singing lessons? After all, paring down the curriculum to concentrate on ‘Core Skills’ such as maths, reading, writing & science doesn’t seem to have worked all that well, does it?