General Matters
Correspondence between BSC and ONS on the methodology of COVID-19
We contacted the Deputy Director for the COVID-19 Infection Survey and Head of Strategic Development for COVID-19 Infection Survey at ONS in order to address our concern, that larger households may be overrepresented in the COVID-19 Infection Survey sample and that the incidence of COVID-19 infections in the population may be overestimated. To see the [...]
RSS public meeting
Royal Statistical Society will be holding a public meeting on Tuesday, 28th of June 2022, to discuss “Measuring Inflation as Households See It – Developing the Household Costs Index”. Click here to see the details.
The Better Statistics Advisory Group
The Better Statistics Advisory Group reflects a diversity of engagement within and across British commercial and business life. The group consists of six insightful professionals who value the quality of statistics and data and their potential impact on decision-making, and who offer robust advice. Members are provided with the opportunity to see and critique the […]
The public launch of Better Statistics CIC
The public launch of Better Statistics CIC will be held on 17th November at the Methodist Hall, Westminster – full details will be published shortly.
Iain MacKay comments on Tony Dent’s review of the ESCoE report
This comprehensive review of the ESCoE report exposes some reasons why open government is necessary to help ensure that public resources are neither wasted nor misdirected. The coalition government that came into office in 2010 showed a determination to provide Open Data in government, manifest in its Open Data command paper. Specifically, they said: “We’re: […]
How successful is ESCoE?
A discussion paper on the ESCoE Report published on the 12th of February 2020 By Tony Dent, Chairman CMR Group and the Campaign for Better Business Statistics Summary This document provides an opportunity for discussion based upon my personal review of the recent Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE) report. It also includes a […]
Covid-19 – and the good news is?
The coming boomer apocalypse Introduction In recent days there have been numerous announcements and statistics published concerning Covid-19 for the UK and overseas. For my part, I had originally crunched the figures for the UK as shown below on the 7th March. I had done that as a personal interest and I emphasise that […]
Living with Uncertainty
A reflection on some of the issues raised by Brexit day. One of the many data issues raised in recent years has been the problem of uncertainty when seeking to forecast our economic future. So, as part of UKPLC’s review of the first twenty years of this ‘new’ century we have re-examined “Macroeconomic uncertainty: what […]
The “Red Wall” has answered the question posed by the Chief Economist of the Bank of England
Within days of the momentous Brexit Referendum, the Chief Economist of the Bank of England in a speech in Port Talbot Wales made some telling points about the then current economic assumptions and the belief that successful business statistics, translate to successful real world outcomes. Andrew Haldane, in remarks attributed to him and not the […]
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
This epic spaghetti western starring Clint Eastwood provides a metaphor for the crisis of capitalism as described by Brunko Milanovic in his recent article “The Crisis of Capitalism is not the one Europeans think it is”[1]. Milanovic explains how, whatever the apparent weaknesses of capitalism, it has become the unrivalled economic mode for mankind’s activities. […]