Boris Johnson seems to have a one-track mind when it comes to numbers. While visiting an infants’ school in Rochdale, he sat in on a few classes.
When a maths lesson was announced, the children were seen to boo, but Boris lapped it up, answering every question. Unfortunately, his eagerness was not matched by his accuracy, and he gave the same answer to every sum.
The teacher, as Miss Donna Yudare, 26 spoke to the Rochdale Herald about it afterwards.
“I had set some simple sums for the children,” she explained. “I was told in advance that Mr Johnson was going to sit in on the class, so I put in a couple of slightly harder ones for him – nothing too taxing, but something that would have been beyond most of the children. But when I started asking the class what the answer was to each question, he put his hand up every time, and before I could say anyone, he would say ‘350 million’ – to what is 2 plus 2, and other easy questions.”
Mr Johnson apparently answered 350 million to every question Miss Yudare set, including:
What is 5+6? What is 9-2? What is 3 x 4?
According to Mr Johnson, the answer to all of them is 350 million.
“The children didn’t understand what was going on,” Miss Yudare continued. “They’re four years old, they don’t know what a hundred is, let alone a million. Eventually they all decided he must be a clown in a suit. They’re actually already using the words three hundred and fifty million as an insult in the playground.”
I wonder if Mr Johnson has ever read The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. Because I think I know what he would say the answer to life, the universe and everything was. Actually, if you factor in inflation over the last four decades, he might even be right.
