He might not have done his political career much good, but he can take some comfort from the fact that his remarks could well have added a month or two to his life. According to John Grimley Evans, a professor of geriatric medicine at Oxford, people who are obstreperous, cantankerous, rude and a down-right pain in the butt are likely to live longer than the rest of us.

In last week’s column I urged teachers with an interest in IT to make it their New Year’s resolution to do as little as they could and to leave everything until the last possible moment. In light of the professor’s findings, may I now urge that they should take a leaf from Mr Richards’ book and supplement their new-found lethargy with a commitment to be determinedly stroppy.

Before Mr Richards disappears forever into the political wilderness, it’s only fair to explain that the gist of his argument is that lousy councillors preside over lousy education authorities which, in turn, tolerate lousy schools. Such schools equip children, not with the skills they need for the modern world, but with a crippling inferiority complex which then inhibits them for the rest of their working lives.

However cock-eyed his argument is, he’s right to highlight how crucial it is that our schools create a generation of high-flyers. The only people likely to get employment in tomorrow’s work place are the smart Alecs (and Alices). And above all else, employers across the spectrum, from merchant banking to manufacture, are looking for youngsters who are at ease with the new technology.

Our future economic prosperity (or the size of my state pension as I think of it) depends on schools equipping children with these vital IT skills. Teachers who are working towards that end should therefore waste no time in slagging off their colleagues who aren’t. For instance, they should be singularly vituperative when it comes to the annual argee-bargee over how to allocate the school’s funds.

Since IT is so crucial, they should insist on having first bite of the cherry. If English teachers want their copies of Macbeth or geographers their globes, let them be told in no uncertain terms that it is they who will have to grovel to the PTA and beg for a handout. The IT enthusiasts should also leave no ear unbent when it comes to fulminating against the inadequacies of in-service training. Teachers can’t be expected to instil *confidence in their pupils if they aren’t oozing with the stuff themselves. That can’t be done during tired twilight sessions, or between hastily grabbed bites during a dyspepsic lunch hour. Teachers should belly-ache until they are offered decent and lengthy introductory courses in hardware and the software relevant to their specialist subjects.

The well-respected Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology carried out a detailed investigation into the use of computers in schools. Among its recommendations was that primary teachers, if they are to have any hope of delivering the IT requirements of the national curriculum, “would need as an absolute minimum at least seven two-day in-service training courses, while gaining an understanding of the educational potential of the equipment would take longer”.

The report appeared four years ago. Have you had your 14 days yet? If your headteacher just doesn’t have the money to contemplate such extravagance, track down your local councillors and, following Mr Richards’ example, make your case as forcibly as you can. It probably won’t change their minds. But it might just help you to live to a riper old age.