What is Boris Johnson’s answer to the problem of teaching children to read and spell? In an interview with Mary Wakefield in the Spectator this week, he was asked:

You’ve said that the most important political issue facing
 Britain is that too many children leave school without the basics of 
reading, writing and maths. How do you plan to fix this?



‘Synthetic phonics,’ he replied, amongst other things.

If a rigorous programme of linguistic/synthetic phonics were to be implemented in London schools, the difference would be noticeable within Boris’s term of office. And if he could do something about this one seemingly intractable problem, it would stand as a fitting testament for which he would earn Londoners’ eternal gratitude.