Hi Folks,
Yesterday Statistics (in the methodological sense)
was prominent in both the House of Commons and the
House of Lords. I became aware of this through
"Today in Parliament" on BBC Radio 4 last night
(23:30-24:00), and have now found it in Hansard.
First in the Lords:
Iraq: Casualties
11.30 am
Lord Lamont of Lerwick asked Her Majesty's Government:
What assessment they have made of the estimate that
the total number of deaths in Iraq following the
invasion in 2003 could have been 655,000.
Read on at:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200405/
ldhansrd/pdvn/lds06/text/61019-0002.htm#06101925000007
[all one line] or at:
http://tinyurl.com/ykudlb
And then in the Commons (Adjournment Debate):
This is a long one, and not easy to find. Go to
http://tinyurl.com/y9v6d4
scroll down to
Column: 1109
Health Care (Suffolk) [19 Oct 2006]
5.17 pm
and click on the "Health Care (Suffolk)" link.
Mr. John Gummer (Suffolk, Coastal) (Con):
launches into a long discourse on the provision of
health care, and its funding. The methodology kicks
in when the "funding formula" comes up, which is well
down. You can search for "formula" in your browser.
However, the whole thing is worth reading, and merely
searching for "formula" will skip you past a lot of
relevant material. Discussion of the funding formula
is not at a particularly technical level, but is
scathing of its implementation.
There was a related item in the "Today in Parliament"
broadcast, in which excerpts from oral evidence to the
Commons Committee on Health were played. This included
Professors Sheena Asthana (Plymouth) and Mervyn Stone
(UCL) being highly critical of the funding formula,
and of the evidence from Professor Barry McCormick
(Chief Economic Adviser to the DoH, ex Southampton).
Unfortunately, transcripts of this session are not
yet available on Hansard (the latest available dating
from 20/07/2006).
The "Today in Parliament" programme is available to
"Listen Again" at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/bbc_parliament/3188796.stm
(e.g. click on "Listen Now" button), which will be
good until tonight's "Today in Parliament" (you will
have to wait a bit until yesterday's program comes up
in the "Last Week's Programmes" list).
The "Iraqui Deaths" item starts 7min 40sec into the program,
and the Health Committee item runs from 20min to 25min 40sec.
Best wishes to all,
Ted.
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E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <[log in to unmask]>
Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861
Date: 20-Oct-06 Time: 11:31:58
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