Those who worked with what was alive in an infinity of yesterdays complained that even though they had no good explanation of why punctuated-equilibrium theory worked, you couldn't argue with the evidence in the rocks, maths or no maths.

ECONOMIST: Stephen Jay Gould

Former Countdown television presenter Carol Vorderman, who is leading a Conservative task force into the subject, told BBC News that there was "no question" maths exams are easier than when she was at school.

BBC: Maths 'no better than in 1970s'

The latest test figures confirm that girls are ahead in reading, but there is no longer any difference in maths - with the girls having closed a lead held by the boys in the 1970s.

BBC: Handwriting

It argues that using performance measures, such as Ofsted inspections and comparing schools' value-added results in English and maths, there is "no correlation at all between spending and outcomes".

BBC: School budget cuts 'no harm to standards'

Branding helps too: teachers may label Somali refugees damaged basket-cases, but Tamil children, sometimes no less traumatised, are stereotyped as industrious maths geeks.

ECONOMIST: Tamil Tigers in Britain

Prof Imre Leader, a maths fellow from Trinity College, Cambridge, has assessed Cameron's maths skills, and believes there is no point fast-forwarding through exams and qualifications unless someone is achieving 99% on every exam.

BBC: What is life like for a teenage prodigy?

With virtually no state schools providing adequate teaching in science or maths, he says, the country has added to its vast problem of unemployment (every other 18-24-year-old is out of work) a no less vast problem of unemployability.

ECONOMIST: White flight from South Africa

In the absence of such a development, it's hard to see the electoral maths opening up a real opportunity for a unionist candidate, no matter how united his or her support.

BBC: Promises easy to make in opposition

No real surprise there, perhaps, though it is interesting to see perceptions on the ground reflected in the maths.

ECONOMIST: Modelling conflict