Chris Skidmore

Like measuring water by the handful, calculating the success of the education system at a time of rampant grade inflation is an impossible task. If exam results go up every year how can we know if are our children are actually getting a better education or if exams are just getting easier? Part of the answer is international comparisons – which is why the OECD PISA rankings published today do actually matter. The last time they were published, in 2009, they showed that as a country we slipped to 25th in reading, 28th in maths and 16th in science. Yet at the same time domestic UK exam results were getting better. If you think that doesn’t add up, that’s because it doesn’t.

As the row over who knew what and when in the Mid-Staffordshire tragedy grows, it's worth taking a close look at the data involved. When you consider the Mid-Staffs scandal across the timeline of the previous government, the findings present extremely uncomfortable evidence for which the Labour party must be held to account. There are two key measures. These are the number of ‘expected deaths’, weighing up the age and condition of patients admitted to hospital, against the actual total number of deaths occurring. The difference between the two figures is known as ‘unexplained deaths’.

The 15th century is beginning to supplant the Tudor age in its allure for historians and novelists. It comes replete with regicide, civil war and — what seems a necessity to the modern market — a wealth of strong queens, or ‘she wolves’ behind every ruler. Sarah Gristwood’s sensitive approach marks out Blood Sisters as much more than the narrative of an age, however. It is an exploration of what it meant to be a medieval queen. The author focuses on the interplay and interdependence of seven women.