Yes and more than a touch. At the same time, the very nature of the English system leaves a huge amount of autonomy to the teacher in the classroom. Optimism can still reign. I remain convinced that the format of the National Curriculum is fundamentally wrong but that it can be effectively ignored in the classroom by having clear programs of work that reach beyond its limited thinking. One of the core issues is a confusion between arithmetic and mathematics.
Politicians express great concern at the lack of basic numeracy amongst the youth.
They may very well be correct. That is not the same as a concern about mathematics. My solution would be very simple. Isolate the teaching of basic numeracy by identifying the skills and competences that are deemed essential. Make this compulsory and leave mathematics as an optional subject which has to fight its corner alongside other subjects in the curriculum.