I think you might need to put your sarcasm detectors into British mode.

Questions around outsourcing, the standard of secondary education, and how education meets the needs of industry all loom fairly large in the British political landscape.

Except I honestly don't think these answers weren't meant to be sarcastic. I sometimes skim through Guardian comments and these seem par for the course.

Poe's law? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law

I've lived in the UK for way too long now, so my sarcasm detector is finely tuned... and I do think those are satyrical comments. It'd be hard for a clueless idiot to hit these buttons quite so precisely. Must be some smart commenters on the Guardian website!

*satirical ...

now now swombat. i can't tell at all whether you are being sarcastic here. (newcomer to HN, won't be surprised to fail the tuning test)

> How can this be true when our exam pass rate has been climbing for yonks?

If anyone wants to see grade inflation UK-style in black and white, take a look at these two pages:

http://www.bstubbs.co.uk/gcse.htm http://www.bstubbs.co.uk/a-lev.htm

The bottom table on each page gives the overview across all subjects.

For those not familiar with the British system, GCSEs are taken at age 16, A-levels at 18.

So, for example, in 1989 when I did GCSEs 45% of grades were in the range A-C. This year it's 69.8%.

When I did A-levels in 1991, 78% of grades were in the range A-E. This year it's 97.8%.

Actually, I am British. I did consider the possibility that those comments were an attempt at humour but sadly I think it's unlikely based on my previous experience of Comment Is Free. (For those not familiar, that's how The Guardian refers to its comments section).

Unfortunately most people who frequent that section tend to forget the second half of the quote.

For those of us not familiar, what is the full quote?

"Comment is free, but facts are sacred"

C. P. Scott http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._P._Scott

For a trawl of some of the worst (presumed British) comments from BBC comments threads, see http://ifyoulikeitsomuchwhydontyougolivethere.com/