Everyone benefits

From this week, we will be picking out some gems from the Panglossian world of government press releases, a world in which our hard-working ministers and civil servants make valiant efforts to better the lives of a grateful public. The title of this column, Everyone Benefits, is a frequent phrase which crops up in New Labour press releases to describe how nobody, least of all you the taxpayer, ever loses out from its initiatives.

Lakeside Darts Action Promotes Adult Numeracy

The Minister for Skills and Vocational Education, Ivan Lewis, today visited the World Professional Darts Championships at Lakeside to promote adult numeracy learning with the British Darts Organisation. ‘Many people want to improve their skills to get on, but they are intimidated by the thought of going back to education to face the equations and fractions. A sport like darts is great, as it shows that maths isn’t a dry subject. I hope that the Get On campaign material we have produced for the Lakeside Championships, including new scratchcards and “check-out” calculators to publicise details of free courses, will inspire people to improve their maths to help them in all walks of life, and not just darts.