Mayor: More Latin in schools

LONDON - It's a dead language, fiendish to master and irrelvant to the modern age, say its detractors.

Classical enthusiasts point out that 80 percent of the English language can be traced back to Latin but have had only limited success in persuading British schools to offer the joys of the dative, the vocative and the ablative absolute.

But now a new champion has emerged in the form of London Mayor Boris Johnson.