WRITTEN ON December 14th, 2008 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Foundation of Trust, Official fibbing/bad stats, What do we want?

A dissident tribe called the UK Statistics Authority has busted the tribe of the Great Clunking Fist and Ho Moffice for fibbing and spinning. Thus, it appears, the Stats Tribe seeks to defend the honour of the Foundation of Trust: (Beeb)

Downing Street has been rebuked for manipulating knife crime statistics for political ends. Sir Michael Scholar, head of the UK Statistics Authority, said officials pleaded with No 10 not to release “unchecked” and “selective” numbers…But they were over-ruled by ministers eager to show a crackdown on knife crime in England was working…In a press release issued on Thursday, Number 10 and the Home Office said there had been a sharp fall in the number of teenagers caught carrying knives in England and hospital admissions due to knife wounds in areas targeted by police. They pointed to a 17% fall in serious injuries and deaths across nine police force areas over the past six months as well as a 27% fall in hospital admissions. The Home Office was repeatedly asked by news organisations for the raw data behind the claimed falls in knife carrying but officials declined to provide the figures, saying the full information would only be published “in due course”.

See the ritual exchange of letters here. Yup, that’s the same tribe as we have encountered.

Meanwhile a former tribal overlord accuses them of overcooking the downturn. And a jury decides that killer police also lied in court. We may need a new “Foundation of Trust” category: official fibbing.