I used to enjoy reading the Comments section of newspapers. Now with the Internet, I much prefer reading the comments written by people commenting on the commentators: they generally make a lot more sense.
One such article is this by Simon Jenkins (in the Guardian), who argues that mathematics is a waste of time, whereas we need more economists and designers (who no doubt don't know any maths). He is quite rightly ridiculed, and you have to wonder why and how columnists get paid to write such rubbish.
In contrast, the always excellent Ben Goldacre in his Bad Science column (also in the Guardian) writes here amusingly about the dodgy mathematics used in a report publicising the decline in the quality of maths in Britain.
Jenkins states that Latin and Greek were more useful than his studies in Maths, and as a journalist perhaps they were, though it surely means he should never report on a story with technical, statistical or economic content. Whereas Goldacre, as a practicing doctor and a scientist, applies scientific rigour to debunk some of the reporting of science and maths by people like Jenkins, which can only be a good think in the search for more reasoned and balanced reporting...
