Education can help us take on 'fake news'

On the plus side, there are some wholly admirable and powerful initiatives, such as #BlackLivesMatter, #MeToo, and the campaign to bring Toby Young's views into wider public awareness. More locally, social media is hugely effective in keeping people in touch with remote friends and family. Recently we video-messaged our three sons and their partners at the same time on my phone - remarkable.

On the downside, though, we have "fake news"- taken to a new level by Donald Trump, but he didn't start the trend, with too many recent examples in the UK. All this is easily explained. For politicians, the temptation is always to show their policies in the best light. So, "phonics test scores are improving" is trumpeted as "children are reading better", while a moment of thought explains why new tests always show a rapid improvement in the first years, levelling off as teachers get used to the new system. We also have grassroots campaigns, circulated in good faith but too-often completely false. Here, people who may have experienced a personal tragedy are desperately - and understandably - trying to find reasons and causes, and something to blame, and an upwelling of public opinion can grow very rapidly.