Comments on: MPs get “Statistics for Dummies” http://www.utterzebu.com/blog/2010/01/18/mps-get-statistics-for-dummies/ Lies, deception, bullshit. It's everywhere. We've had enough. It's time to fight back! Sun, 25 Jul 2010 21:16:54 +0100 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: URS http://www.utterzebu.com/blog/2010/01/18/mps-get-statistics-for-dummies/comment-page-1/#comment-470 URS Mon, 18 Jan 2010 18:31:21 +0000 http://www.utterzebu.com/blog/2010/01/18/mps-get-statistics-for-dummies/#comment-470 Statistics is a science. There are lots of ways of calculating averages. In the famous dispute over pay in a government department, for some quite-impossible-to-discern reason the ONS used a method that minimised the gender pay gap, and Harriet Harman used one that showed it more clearly. Of course you can't expect the ONS to recognise that their method is unsuited to a situation that is distorted by outliers -- or could you expect professional statisticians to manage that? Did making the ONS more independent make them more honest, or more dependent on producing the figures the great leader demands? Statistics is a science. There are lots of ways of calculating averages. In the famous dispute over pay in a government department, for some quite-impossible-to-discern reason the ONS used a method that minimised the gender pay gap, and Harriet Harman used one that showed it more clearly. Of course you can’t expect the ONS to recognise that their method is unsuited to a situation that is distorted by outliers — or could you expect professional statisticians to manage that?

Did making the ONS more independent make them more honest, or more dependent on producing the figures the great leader demands?

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