WRITTEN ON July 18th, 2009 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Foundation of Trust, Official fibbing/bad stats, We told you so..., What do we want?

Ben “Bad Science” Goldacre has a careful look at the evidence provided to justify DNA database policy by the Jill Dando Institute of Inappropriate Shroudwaving:

In fact, this study from the Jill Dando Institute, attached to their consultation paper as an appendix, is possibly the most unclear and badly presented piece of research I have ever seen in a professional environment….This research was incomprehensible and unreadable. Anybody who claims to have been persuaded by the data quoted here is telling you, loudly and clearly in the subtitles, that they don’t need to understand a piece of research in order to find it compelling. Such people are not to be trusted, and if research of this callibre is what guides our policy on huge intrusions into the personal privacy of millions of innocent people, then they might as well be channeling spirits.

Buy Ben a pint and he might just tell you what he really thinks.