The UK, a country famous for its love of tradition, has begun one of its summer rituals. Every year, just as the grouse-shooting season starts, there is a mass outbreak of grousing about school exams not being as hard as they used to be.

Results from the A-level exams, taken by school leavers at 18, were released on Thursday. It is increasingly difficult to tell top students apart because one-quarter of all papers now receive the maximum A grade. Part of the problem is that A-levels are used to judge the performance of the government, of schools and of children. It is unsurprising that it measures none of their performances very well.