LEAGUE tables are an unavoidable part of life. They serve a useful purpose in seeking our best practice and encouraging improvement.

The merit of the league tables used in education, however, is less apparent.

We have been a consistent critic of school league tables. In their current form, they relate to us the blindingly obvious, that schools given extra resources and schools in affluent communities have better examination results than schools with poor resources and schools in deprived areas.

The tables do not reflect the 'added value' teachers and schools offer children.

As such, they can give some schools false satisfaction about their performance, and give others an unfair assessment of the quality of their teachers and the hard work of their pupils.

The growing obsession with league tables is alarming.

There is a temptation for many schools to concentrate resources on borderline pupils in the hope of improving their grades, rather than trying to improve the achievements of all pupils.

While examination results are important and are an unavoidable gauge of individual ability, they are not the be-all-and-end-all of education.

The Government must actively consider the abolition of tables, and their replacement with a mechanism which more accurately reflects the standard of teaching and the progress of children.

IT is wholly unreasonable to expect banks to forego profits in their relationships with small business. But it is imperative that those profits are reasonable.

By making excessive profits of £725m at the expense of small and medium-sized firms, it is apparent that the big four banks are being unreasonable and unfair.

The Chancellor's pledge to increase competition in the banking sector to get a better deal for small business is long overdue.

With the demise of heavy industries, small businesses are playing an increasingly important role in the national economy.

They should be rewarded and encouraged to grow and create employment opportunities, and not be penalised by banks who are abusing their hold over small firms.