I have just had one of my regular polite, but nevertheless heated, exchanges with non-specialists who say 'You can say anything with statistics' and 'You can't trust statistics'. My assertion that honest statisticians can not say absolutely anything they want was met with the response 'Are there any honest statisticians?' I think my audience saw the producers of official statistics as being in the same category as politicians and journalists (certainly not 'one of us'). Can anyone direct me towards a simple account of the quality control exercised over National Statistics? Short and in non-bureaucratic language please. If there's nothing out there I may have to do it myself - but if there's already something available …..
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
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