The Independent and Sex Selective Abortion: Not Even Wrong

According to The Independent: Pressure is growing for the Government to curb the way that ultrasound scans can be used to inform pregnant women about the gender of their unborn babies following an investigation by The Independent suggesting that female foetuses are more likely to be aborted within […]

The Independent’s ‘Lost Girls’: A Truly Epic Fail in Data Journalism

Okay, quick recap: Yesterday, The Independent Newspaper published an article by its Science Editor, Steve Connor, in which its purports to have uncovered evidence of what it claims to be widespread use of illegal sex-selective abortions by ‘some UK ethnic groups’, all based on a bespoke data set […]

The Indie’s ‘Lost Girls’ may not be what it appears

Okay, this is a bit of rush job but even in the absence of any data to work with, the Independent’s claim to have uncovered evidence in the 2011 census data that gender selective abortion is being ‘widely used’ by some UK ethnic groups requires n immediate response: […]

Plebgate and the Illusion of Memory

Okay, so Plebgate is back in the news today because Keith Wallis, the Metropolitan Police Officer who false claimed to have witnessed the incident in an email sent to his local MP has admitted a charge of misconduct in public office and offered to resign from the force. […]

Young and Unemployed? You could become a Pornographer, says DWP.

I want to share a document with you, a page from Chapter 20 of the Department of Work and Pensions recently revised guidance for Work Programme providers, one which deals specifically with the provision of wage incentives to employers under the Youth Contract – i.e. this is where […]

On the banning of revenge porn

There is a new petition up at Change.org calling on David Cameron to ban revenge porn: Revenge porn is the intentional sexual humiliation of ex partners by posting intimate and naked photos/videos on-line. The jilted ex often writes malicious and damning remarks about the subject and provides they […]

Domestic Abuse Statistics and Margins of Error

Today’s Observer is running a story on research by Citizens Advice which, more than anything else, serves to demonstrate just how easily statistical information can be abused to present an alarming but potentially inaccurate picture of reality… Domestic abuse: half a million victims ‘too terrified to come forward’ […]

One Flew Over The Hemming’s Nest

Before getting into this I should explain that this particular article was to have been on the subject of the so-called ‘forced caesarian section’ case, which has of course been one of the more prominent news stories of the last few days, and the article was to have […]

Has Nadine Dorries misled the Standards Committee?

I’m not going to comment directly on the Sunday Mirror’s exclusive story of strange things going on in the heart of Mid Bedfordshire… Mystery of Nadine Dorries MP, her millionaire landlord and the internet glamour model Controversial Tory MP Nadine Dorries shares her landlord with a Romanian glamour […]

What Dorries Doesn’t Tell You

Let me take you all the way back to 12th May 2013, the date on which the mainstream media finally got around to noticing that Nadine Dorries MP had failed to declare her earnings from her appearance on ITV’s I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here on […]