I don't know what was 'embarrassing' about the figures released by ONS. Perhaps the real reason for the outburst was that someone in the government was afraid ONS might be getting some (unwarranted) publicity for 'stirring up anti-foreigner sentiment', which is the government's job.


Robert




Professor Robert Moore
School of Sociology and Social Policy
Eleanor Rathbone Building
The University of Liverpool
L69 7ZA

Telephone and fax: 44 (0) 1352 714456
________________________________________
From: email list for Radical Statistics [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ted Harding [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 04 March 2009 14:18
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Govt vs ONS again

For example:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7922875.stm
Minister 'appalled' by stats body
Immigration Minister Phil Woolas has accused the Office for National
Statistics of "playing politics" with population figures.
[etc].

Excerpts:

 "But the prime minister's official spokesman said the ONS
  had to be aware of "the sensitivities" surrounding the
  immigration debate and the government was "questioning"
  the timing of the release of data which "can have a
  political bearing.

  The ONS figures, published at the same time as figures
  showing a big fall in the number of East Europeans
  registering to work in the UK at the end of last year,
  showed a 290,000 rise in overseas-born UK residents,
  which reached 6.5 million in the year to June 2008.

  They were widely reported in the media and made it on to
  the front page of two national newspapers."


 "In a letter released by the Home Office, Mr Woolas said he
  tried to block the release of the figures, which he claims
  are "neither new nor informative"."


 "In a letter to Sunder Katwala, general secretary of the
  centre-left Fabian Society think-tank, published in full
  on the Liberal Conspiracy website, the minister says:
  "[...] The justification from the ONS who had, out of
  schedule, highlighted the figure two weeks earlier because
  it was 'topical' is, at best naive or, at worst, sinister."

So, there was the previous incident of the Government publishing
ONS data, against the wishes of the ONS who tried to block their
publication, at a time which, the ONS said, was premature (before
the data were ready for publication, according to the ONS and so,
presumably "out of schedule"), and politically motivated.

We apparently now have the Govenment seeking to block an ONS
publication, claiming it is "out of schedule" and politically
motivated.

Question (to anyone who might know the answer):
What was the official schedule for the publication of the data
series in which these data were included?

Ted.

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Date: 04-Mar-09                                       Time: 14:18:05
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