Shadow Education Secretary <person>Tim Collins</person> said: "This is the third report in two days to highlight Labour's failure to ensure young people acquire the necessary levels of literacy and numeracy for their working life. "Employers and business leaders have repeatedly voiced concern over the number of school-leavers without these basic skills, but all the government have offered is more talk." Liberal Democrat education spokesman <person>Phil Willis</person> added: "Far too little has been done to enable adult learners to fit learning into their busy lives."
The media attention had helped to move the focus from Scotland's binge drinking problems, Mr <person>Law</person> said. Scotsman journalist <person>Hamish MacDonell</person> said he believed the bigger picture had been "obscured" by the remark. Mr <person>McConnell</person> was speaking on Monday to more than 100 secondary pupils from schools in the Highlands about the problems of binge drinking and drink promotions.