Dyson relies on spin to censure Government

Double cross-country running is guaranteed to send today’s disillusioned youth bunking off round the back of the bike sheds.

If you really want to keep kids gripped at school then a design and technology GCSE is the way forward, says James Dyson, because it has the lowest truancy levels. He has used the launch of his Contrarotator washing machine to have a pop at the Government, which has removed the subject from the compulsory studies list.

Dyson worries this will discourage girls from studying it, but surely the thought of all those boys constructing hacksaws would be enough to send any teenage girl screaming from the home economics syllabus to join.