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March 27, 2005
Lies, damned lies and statistics
The SNP are asking for an independent statistics office for Scotland, reacting to an article in the Economist raising concerns about the freedom from political pressure of the Office for National Statistics.
Discussions about energy and the environment, the NHS, independence and many other important issues must be based on reliable figures, so I am very much in favour of this. In fact, we have got to a point where almost every government-published figure relating to public services comes under suspicion because of the pressure on managers to meet centrally-determined targets. Nowhere is this more apparent than with the NHS.
“Every measure produced by the Government, from economic growth to unemployment to accident and emergency waiting times, is being manipulated and massaged to produce rosier pictures than real people experience in their day-to-day lives.” Jim Mather MSP
www.economist.com/world/europe/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3789219
www.snp.org/snpnews/2005/snppressrelease.2005-03-25.0981592087
news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=324&id=322872005
Posted by Simon Holledge at March 27, 2005 06:03 PM
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