Those are interesting, Iains, though it is important to note the widely different years they were written. In one for this year I found this little snippet intriguing "The report raised concerns that competition between exam boards prevented them setting papers or assessments "that might appear difficult, for example by including more and more challenging mathematical content."

Now, why should they do that? Because it affects schools position in league tables, perhaps. So if you accept the standards are falling - which is not easy to analyse in the first place - it is at least a hypothesis to be tested that the league tables are a significant factor. Which would not be in the least surprising - it is a commonplace that measuring something can often affect what you are measuring.