The London Economic covers a report released by Full Fact:^1
>A new report out from Full Fact, dubbed ‘Government Statistics: Misrepresentation and Data Gaps’, found instances of potentially misleading data being sent out by departments such as the Home Office, Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office.
>The group concludes within the report that when data is repeatedly misrepresented, even after the error has been pointed out, then this appears to be being done in pursuit of political advantage.
>For instance, the report outlines a concerning trend at the Home Office of claims being made based on unpublished operational data as well as a lack of transparency around the sources of some claims made in public debate.
>
>Chris Morris, Chief Executive at Full Fact, said, “When Rishi Sunak first came to power, he promised us ‘integrity, accountability and professionalism at every level’.
>“Instead, we have been left with a government where we have seen multiple instances of data use which fails to be transparent, or worse, appears to be misleading us. It’s unacceptable.
>“Mistakes happen. But when these issues are raised time and time again, and nothing happens, we can only conclude that transparency, honesty and accountability is not a priority for this government.”^2
From the report: *The way statistics are presented is a crucial part of how they are interpreted and understood by the public. If data is presented without context or caveats, if it is described incorrectly, or if data is given too much weight, it can give an incomplete or misleading picture.*^2
Or, you know, not at all shocking. The government don’t care.
Oh no!
At least they’re up there with academics, climate activists, every little protest group, corporations, the media, the military, etc
You mean that the Tories, who changed their social media profile names to “FactCheckUK” during political debates, are not actually truthfully using and disseminating facts?
Who’d’ve thunk it?!
“Water is wet”.
Snark aside, context is **incredibly** important for statistics, hence the well know phrase “lies, damned lies, and statistics”.
As an example, if I say that there were 1,500,000 assaults causing serious injury last year, that sounds bad – because our context is automatically the UK – but if the context is, instead, London, it is awful. In this case, by excluding the context, we are minimising the apparent seriousness of an issue, by using a readers internal biases against them.
^(* Number are completely made up as an example.)
Really? And the pope may be represented as a Catholic
I am just dumbfounded by the entire concept, dumbfounded I tell you! They are politicians, they have a responsibility and social contract with their voters. This would imply that they not only think they can lie to us but that they act to serve their own and or their party’s interests before the electorate!
This is literally how politics works. Every politician does this. You can bend facts to fit whatever narrative you want.
It’s good to highlight when the government have done it, but it’s also important to remember that this is extremely common
Even taking to current government out of the equation, as a general statement this is very much ‘water is wet’.
The news here is that they are using data for once.
What you mean, lads, is that they are continually straight out barefaced lying. FTFY
Oh look another thing that the Tories are doing that are breaking the British values they created 😮
“misrepresenting data”
Or as we call it in common parlance, “lying”.
I think some people are missing the point here. It appears the hang up is less that numbers are being interpreted favourably, which can be one of the purposes of statistics.
Rather the issue is a failure to publish complete data to allow independent study of the numbers so we can understand how statistics have been used.
I expect politicians to stretch the truth, but straight up lying about numbers is shocking to me.
Not Fish Rishi and his dastardly gang of elite scabs? Next you’ll be telling me the skys blue…
In other news, fact checkers have warned that the sea is actually quite wet.
You mean to say a political entity will make use of stats to back up their own narrative?
Absolutely shocking; a unique evil that of course only the tories could come up with.
Breaking News: NeoLiberal Democracy Party does Neoliberal Democracy Party things
I’m sure it’ll be fine. Critical thinking is excellent in the UK, they always consider the source and do their own research into things. We are taught from an early age that if someone rich and powerful says something they may have an ulterior motive.
It’s why the newspapers are all shutting down.
Facts are facts. Doesn’t matter if these so called fact checkers are offended by them.
Next you’ll be telling me the Pope shits in the woods.
what do you mean Maybe? they have been for sometime
40 new hospitals…erm they counted painting a door, or refurb of an old wing as a new hospital
20k new police officers…they got rid of 20k years ago so they’ve replaced the ones they got rid of
Same with new Drs, nurses and so on…all they ever do is lie
The inverted commas are around the wrong two words. Should be on ‘may be’.
23 comments
The London Economic covers a report released by Full Fact:^1
>A new report out from Full Fact, dubbed ‘Government Statistics: Misrepresentation and Data Gaps’, found instances of potentially misleading data being sent out by departments such as the Home Office, Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office.
>The group concludes within the report that when data is repeatedly misrepresented, even after the error has been pointed out, then this appears to be being done in pursuit of political advantage.
>For instance, the report outlines a concerning trend at the Home Office of claims being made based on unpublished operational data as well as a lack of transparency around the sources of some claims made in public debate.
>
>Chris Morris, Chief Executive at Full Fact, said, “When Rishi Sunak first came to power, he promised us ‘integrity, accountability and professionalism at every level’.
>“Instead, we have been left with a government where we have seen multiple instances of data use which fails to be transparent, or worse, appears to be misleading us. It’s unacceptable.
>“Mistakes happen. But when these issues are raised time and time again, and nothing happens, we can only conclude that transparency, honesty and accountability is not a priority for this government.”^2
From the report: *The way statistics are presented is a crucial part of how they are interpreted and understood by the public. If data is presented without context or caveats, if it is described incorrectly, or if data is given too much weight, it can give an incomplete or misleading picture.*^2
^1 https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/government-may-be-misrepresenting-data-for-political-advantage-warn-fact-checkers-362458/
^2 https://fullfact.org/media/uploads/government_statistics_-_misrepresentation_and_data_gaps.pdf
Shocking!
Or, you know, not at all shocking. The government don’t care.
Oh no!
At least they’re up there with academics, climate activists, every little protest group, corporations, the media, the military, etc
You mean that the Tories, who changed their social media profile names to “FactCheckUK” during political debates, are not actually truthfully using and disseminating facts?
Who’d’ve thunk it?!
“Water is wet”.
Snark aside, context is **incredibly** important for statistics, hence the well know phrase “lies, damned lies, and statistics”.
As an example, if I say that there were 1,500,000 assaults causing serious injury last year, that sounds bad – because our context is automatically the UK – but if the context is, instead, London, it is awful. In this case, by excluding the context, we are minimising the apparent seriousness of an issue, by using a readers internal biases against them.
^(* Number are completely made up as an example.)
Really? And the pope may be represented as a Catholic
I am just dumbfounded by the entire concept, dumbfounded I tell you! They are politicians, they have a responsibility and social contract with their voters. This would imply that they not only think they can lie to us but that they act to serve their own and or their party’s interests before the electorate!
This is literally how politics works. Every politician does this. You can bend facts to fit whatever narrative you want.
It’s good to highlight when the government have done it, but it’s also important to remember that this is extremely common
Even taking to current government out of the equation, as a general statement this is very much ‘water is wet’.
The news here is that they are using data for once.
What you mean, lads, is that they are continually straight out barefaced lying. FTFY
Oh look another thing that the Tories are doing that are breaking the British values they created 😮
“misrepresenting data”
Or as we call it in common parlance, “lying”.
I think some people are missing the point here. It appears the hang up is less that numbers are being interpreted favourably, which can be one of the purposes of statistics.
Rather the issue is a failure to publish complete data to allow independent study of the numbers so we can understand how statistics have been used.
I expect politicians to stretch the truth, but straight up lying about numbers is shocking to me.
Not Fish Rishi and his dastardly gang of elite scabs? Next you’ll be telling me the skys blue…
In other news, fact checkers have warned that the sea is actually quite wet.
You mean to say a political entity will make use of stats to back up their own narrative?
Absolutely shocking; a unique evil that of course only the tories could come up with.
Breaking News: NeoLiberal Democracy Party does Neoliberal Democracy Party things
I’m sure it’ll be fine. Critical thinking is excellent in the UK, they always consider the source and do their own research into things. We are taught from an early age that if someone rich and powerful says something they may have an ulterior motive.
It’s why the newspapers are all shutting down.
Facts are facts. Doesn’t matter if these so called fact checkers are offended by them.
Next you’ll be telling me the Pope shits in the woods.
what do you mean Maybe? they have been for sometime
40 new hospitals…erm they counted painting a door, or refurb of an old wing as a new hospital
20k new police officers…they got rid of 20k years ago so they’ve replaced the ones they got rid of
Same with new Drs, nurses and so on…all they ever do is lie
The inverted commas are around the wrong two words. Should be on ‘may be’.