Has the public really had enough of experts?

“People in this country have had enough of experts.” This quote, from Michael Gove, was probably one of the most controversial statements of the EU referendum, prompting plenty of experts and commentators to take to the broadsheets in defence of their expertise. This was the question for discussion at the Institute for Government’s event this…

How to find a fact

"5% of British businesses export to the EU." "5% of British VAT-registered businesses export to the EU." "5% of British VAT-registered businesses export to other VAT-registered companies in the EU." All of these claims are partly right, and none of them tell you the whole story about British trade with the EU. During the EU…

How to find a fact: vanishing asylum seekers

"REVEALED: Britain’s immigration crisis laid bare as 12,000 asylum seekers VANISH" We spotted this headline last month. What was going on here? Had 12,000 asylum seekers actually disappeared into thin air? The implication of this article was that 12,000 asylum seekers who have arrived in the UK have been “lost” by Home Office officials: we don’t know…

How the BBC can improve dodgy uses of statistics

How much does the UK contribute to the EU each week? How tired did you get of hearing that question, and of the inaccurate answer that it’s £350 million? Even if you didn’t watch the debates or read the op-eds, it was hard to miss the pictures of Boris Johnson and other high profile Vote…

News: A User’s Manual, by Alain de Botton

Alain de Botton has had an epiphany. In a post-lapsarian world, humankind is wont to turn towards some higher power to search for salvation; where religion once provided all the answers, we now have news. de Botton has compiled a “little manual that briefly tries to complicate” that which appears to have become “too normal…