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Who would have believed it. A labour government trying to make themselves look good. Far from keeping his promise not to spin any more maybe his super hero name should be Birling Brown.

Ministers rebuked over knife crime figures


Ministers rebuked over knife crime figures - UK Politics, UK - The Independent

The Government was severely rebuked by the statistics watchdog today over its use of knife crime figures.

Sir Michael Scholar, head of the UK Statistics Authority, said yesterday's release of stabbing data by 10 Downing Street and the Home Office was "premature, irregular and selective".

In a letter to Jeremy Heywood, Permanent Secretary at Number 10, he said figures on hospital admissions for stabbing injuries had not been properly checked and putting them out early was "corrosive of public trust".

Sir Michael said in his letter that he was told officials or advisers in Number 10 "caused" the Home Office to issue the release.

The statisticians who produced the figures tried to block their release, which was in breach of the National Statistics Code of Practice, he said.

He said: "These statistics were not due for publication for some time, and had not therefore been through the regular process of checking and quality assurance.

Does'nt surprise me in the least, the government's been fiddling their figures for years.

This is one of the reasons why I don't think politicians should be allowed to run a country. They couldn't run a ruddy car, let alone a country and now we've got politicians in the world who want to run the world.

I had to re-read your thread title. I thought it said "Gordon Brown fiddles his fingers." Instead of an "air guitar", he "air fiddles". Sorry. I'll go now.

gmc;1084881 wrote: Who would have believed it. A labour government trying to make themselves look good. Far from keeping his promise not to spin any more maybe his super hero name should be Birling Brown.



Ministers rebuked over knife crime figures - UK Politics, UK - The Independent


I don't see anything wrong with this.

Figures released too early are hardly Treason to the country. A revised report will soon follow.

Get a grip gmc, really.... tut tut

oscar;1085099 wrote: I don't see anything wrong with this.

Figures released too early are hardly Treason to the country. A revised report will soon follow.

Get a grip gmc, really.... tut tut


Doesn't surprise me that you don't. This might help

UK Statistics Authority - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gordon Brown, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced on 28 November 2005, that the government intended to publish plans in early 2006 to legislate to render the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the statistics it generates independent of government on a model based on the independence of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England. This was originally a 1997 Labour Party manifesto commitment and was also the policy of the Liberal Democrat and Conservative parties. Such independence was also sought by the Royal Statistical Society and the Statistics Commission. The National Statistician, who is the chief executive of the ONS, would be directly accountable to Parliament through a widely-constituted independent governing Statistics Board. The ONS would be a non-ministerial government department so that the staff, including the Director, would remain as civil servants but without being under direct ministerial control. The National Statistician, Karen Dunnell, stated at the time that legislation would help improve public trust in official statistics although the ONS already acts independently according to its own published guidelines, the National Statistics Code of Practice, which sets out the key principles and standards that official statisticians, including those in other parts of the government statistical service, are expected to follow and uphold.




Your hero set it up as an independent body so that government departments would be unable to play around with statistics to make themselves look good. Maybe he just forgot or is it he's as bog a liar as Tony Blair ever was:sneaky: