"They become like blinking lizards, motionless, absorbed, only the twitching of their hands showing they are still conscious." What could Henley-on-Thames conservative MP Boris Johnson be talking about? Strangely, he's not referring to his colleagues during Prime Minister's question time at the House of Commons, but he's talking about children who play videogames.

The 'thinking man's idiot', whose known for his scruffy hair-do and eccentric personality, continued his attack on videogames by saying, "These machines teach them nothing. They stimulate no ratiocination, discovery or feat of memory -- though some of them may cunningly pretend to be educational.

"Every child must have one, and what we fail to grasp is that these possessions are not so much an index of wealth as a cause of ignorance and underachievement and, yes, poverty."

Bumbling Boris concludes his rant by calling for parents to "Summon up all your strength, all your courage. Steel yourself for the screams and yank out that plug. And if they still kick up a fuss, then get out the sledgehammer and strike a blow for literacy."

There has already been a study on videogames that concluded that simulation and adventure games - such as Sim City, where players create societies or build theme parks, developed children's strategic thinking and planning skills. Some videogames teach you about history, others improve your co-ordination, whereas the likes of Brain Training on the DS improves high-speed reading, drawing from memory and encourages you to solve math problems. Videogames can be educational and Boris has given his biased opinion based on 'what other people say'; has he actually played any of these consoles or games? I doubt it.

We propose Xbox 360s in every classroom in the country allowing children to play educational games over Xbox live between other schools and during breaks they could rip each other to shreds playing Halo 2 rather than beating each other up in the playground or smoking behind the bike sheds.

Okay, so we're slightly biased being a gaming website, but Is Boris Johnson right to think that no videogame educates? Or is he a misguided fool that's been hanging around with too many dinosaurs?

Let us know in the forums.

You can read Boris Johnson's full rant on his personal website.

Story via MCV (thanks!)