On 30-Jun-03 David Wooff wrote:
> Thanks to the many who responded so quickly. Apologies to the person
> who thought this a misuse of allstat: "I strongly support charging
> for parking but I wouldn't use a statistical list to try and support
> my point of view on a political issue." I see your point, but plead
> honesty, unlike (probably) Durham admin.
>
> Summary of charges follow. Durham admin "examples" starred.
> Commiserations to Londoners and several very grumpy allstaters at
> University of Wales College of Medicine! To me, Durham "examples" do
> look selective, particularly considering our small-town setting.
As it happens, I think your information makes a valid point which does
belong to Statistics -- namely abuse of an apparently biased selection
to support a case, without revealing the rest!
It reminds me (from some years ago) of a similar list purporting to
counter perceptions that "Manchester is a violent place" by quoting
from "Statistics of Recorded Crime" (by Police Authority) in which
lists of rates of different categories of violent crime showed Manchester
at the bottom of each column (lowest rates).
The fact that there were several other Authorities below Manchester in
each case (compared with the few above) was not revealed, and could only
be ascertained by going to the published statistics ...
In your case, you have endeavoured to ascertain the equivalent
information, with similar results! Surely Allstat is a valid resource.
Best wishes,
Ted.
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E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <[log in to unmask]>
Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 167 1972
Date: 30-Jun-03 Time: 11:40:53
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