Evidence not ideology: The signal and the noise or lies, more lies, even more lies and government statistics (video)

This occasional blog arises out of an exasperation at rampant and unnecessary social injustice and the peculiarly human stupidity that prevents us from learning from our own mistakes. It particularly mystifies me that we continue to accept political decisions based on ideology (and bribery) rather than evidence and to prefer personal advancement based on wealth and not merit.

One of the main problems with our politics is the constant abuse of statistical data by all sides which, in my view, is no different to lying. Last month the UK government told us that unemployment fell by 124,000 but did you know that unemployment figures are based on a *survey* with a margin of error of +/- 100,000. .  Whatever the change in unemployment was last month, one thing is a near certainty; it did not fall by 124,000.  This clip from Newsnight highlights a few of the methods used by politicians as they attempt to mislead us with skewed data and political spin every single day.  It is time that we demanded some honesty in our political debate.

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