The Lib Dems continue
to struggle to understand the difference between absolute numbers and
percentages. According to Freedom
Central, in her statement this afternoon, the party’s leader said that “Labour still spends £600 less on each pupil
each year compared to those living in England”.
I’ve referred to this mathematical inexactitude before. Converting an average to an absolute in this
way is distorting the truth in an attempt to make a political point. But here’s a question – how much faith can we
have in anyone’s understanding of the complex numbers in the budget if they don’t
understand the difference between an average and an absolute number?
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3 comments:
I think politicians need some training in basic statistics.
The numbers themselves don't lie but hand a set of numbers to a politician and wait for the bewildering conclusions and leaps of illogic....
There are many who might suspect that the Lib Dems actually do train their members in basic statistics and how to misuse them - at the School of Misleading Barcharts.
Quite. There is enough to criticise Labour for without having to exaggerate things.
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