Although we have all been long aware that people abuse statistcs to support political objectives, one would expect professional statisticians to understand how results can be skewed deliberately or in error, and examine the methodolgy, but it seems scientific rigour has been compromised.
This goes against the trend of better technology, and increased rate of change.
I have come to believe that a national database is absolutely essential, and that as well as being very unusual in the world, it is now insane.
Agree that the statistics need to be improved significantly - it is interesting that the declaration rate on ethnicity has worsened so much since 2010 and that needs explaining. I would hope that the statisticians have been researching the issue to establish the extent to which it is skewing statistics e.g. can you assume that crime suspects of different ethnicities are equally likely to not declare their ethnicity? More thought also needs to be given to the interplay of age and ethnicity: the White British population is far older than the ethnic minority population and older people of all ethnicities are far less likely to commit crimes so simple "crimes per 1,000" massively exaggerate the extent to which there are differences by ethnicity (indeed, the recent FOI data from the Centre for Migration Control suggested that foreign nationals have similar or even lower crime rates than British citizens if you control for age https://migrationctrl.substack.com/p/uks-first-migrant-crime-report)
I have only been signed up for a few weeks and I am dead impressed with the thoughtfulness and thoroughness of the articles I have read. I wish all MPs were like this. Thank you.
Although we have all been long aware that people abuse statistcs to support political objectives, one would expect professional statisticians to understand how results can be skewed deliberately or in error, and examine the methodolgy, but it seems scientific rigour has been compromised.
This goes against the trend of better technology, and increased rate of change.
I have come to believe that a national database is absolutely essential, and that as well as being very unusual in the world, it is now insane.
Agree that the statistics need to be improved significantly - it is interesting that the declaration rate on ethnicity has worsened so much since 2010 and that needs explaining. I would hope that the statisticians have been researching the issue to establish the extent to which it is skewing statistics e.g. can you assume that crime suspects of different ethnicities are equally likely to not declare their ethnicity? More thought also needs to be given to the interplay of age and ethnicity: the White British population is far older than the ethnic minority population and older people of all ethnicities are far less likely to commit crimes so simple "crimes per 1,000" massively exaggerate the extent to which there are differences by ethnicity (indeed, the recent FOI data from the Centre for Migration Control suggested that foreign nationals have similar or even lower crime rates than British citizens if you control for age https://migrationctrl.substack.com/p/uks-first-migrant-crime-report)
the 'we won't tell you, don't spread misinformation' is another part of a growing democratic deficit in the UK. Keep on it Neil, and thanks.
I have only been signed up for a few weeks and I am dead impressed with the thoughtfulness and thoroughness of the articles I have read. I wish all MPs were like this. Thank you.