> The fact that ONS has denied being manipulated - and that should be
> accepted - adds fuel to my contention that politicians are probably a
> lesser evil than journalists and newspapers with a circulation or
> political axe to grind.

Why this negative view?

The ONS on the whole does a great job.   But the ONS keep on boasting about
the quality of their statistics - even when it is very poor - as with the
Census that did not seriously attempt to count immigrants, illegals or
non-resident partners, as with the Labour Force survey that fails to count
with reasonable accuracy the number of claimant unemployed, as with the
Family Resources Survey that fails to count with reasonable accuracy the
number of recipients of a number of government benefits, as with economic
statistics that are all to do with managing the economy and have little to
say about our standard of living.

I do not think that the ONS will get trust, or will deserve trust, until it
starts emphasing the limitations of these statistics rather than their
quality.

I'm suprised at the naivity of the suggestion made that the UN provide
authoritative statistics on the British population.   Is the suggestion that
the UN use sources not available to the ONS?     If so I'd like to know
about them!

We need the journalists and the press desperately - to try to ensure that
the ONS does what it is supposed to do.   The main point of the Sunday Times
piece that originated this discussion was that the Government leaned on the
ONS on the timing of publication of immigration statistics.  The response to
this charge in the letter to the Statistics commission or in minister
(McTaggarts (?)'s)  response in a TV interview was hardly convincing.

Seven years after the Labour Party's election pledge to create an
statistical service independent to the government of the day, after Green
Paper, White Paper and Code of Conduct, the situation seems to be that a
government only has to drop a hint and the ONS will conform.    It does not
have to be a Labour Government.    The present Government has managed to set
a pattern that other governments will follow in manipulating reality.

Ray Thomas
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