Piers Merchant and the Cornflakes; Sunday Rant

Many years ago, back through the mists of time, the then Tory MP Piers Merchant (later disgraced) took it upon himself to shame the dole-scroungers by showing how he and his family could easily survive on state benefits. They moved into a council flat with media approval, and set to it.
At the end of his experiment, his then wife was furious.
Apparently the money had run out pretty quickly and the family had spent the week eking out their diet with bowls of cornflakes, rather than give up.
To give him his due, he was rather sheepish about it.
A few years later, the then Tory MP  Edwina Currie (later disgraced) took it upon herself to shame the dole-scroungers by showing how she could easily survive on state benefits.
After a diet of courgettes and and unhealthy amount (according to dieticians) of cheap and fattening cheddar cheese, she too had to grudgingly admit that it hadn't been a lot of fun.

I am mentioning this because a spate of right-wing journalists has been undertaking A Levels to prove that they must be getting much easier than they were in their day, because so many pupils seem to be doing exceedingly well.
Quietly, because they are journalists with an agenda, they later admit that the exams are just as hard, and in some cases, harder.
Could this be, scandal of scandals, that state school teachers are doing their job much better and state school educated children are working much harder?
That in fact British education is improving?
This would not fit with nasty critical and negative policies about the peasants, would it?
I think we should be told!