Statistics

Tuesday.

While the rest of the World sweats on matters of Global importance in the US, I fanny about for trivial blog fodder.

In London UK, Mayor Ken Livingstone has asked the Government to devolve powers to him to turn the City into a smoke free zone, starting with cabs.

To support his request he provides statistics from a Mori poll based on 1,007 telephone interviews which revealed widespread support for a ban on smoking in offices, taxis, restaurants and other workplaces.

According to the report in This Is London, the poll "found that 60% of Londoners said they strongly supported a smoking ban in taxis while another 14% said they would tend to support such a move. Overall, 65% of Londoners expressed support for a total ban on smoking in all workplaces." All this gathered from 1,007 telephone calls. 65% of 1,007 is 654.55 phone calls so someone must have put the phone down part way through the session.

The 2001 population figures for London indicate a total population of 7,172,091. 1,007 as a percentage of 7,172,091 is 0.014040535737764621%. Seems to me that evidence based on the views of 65% of 0.014% of the population of anywhere is meaningless but I'm assured by my resident statistician that statistically that is a big survey. What messes it up and makes it potentially worthless is that it was a phone survey. What about mobile users? What about people out at work? Vocal emphasis etc? I stick to my non mathematical verdict.

London Firearms Officers Strike.

Up to 120 officers are refusing to carry weapons after the suspension of two colleagues. They are furious that an inquest jury ruled last week that unarmed Harry Stanley was unlawfully killed by two officers from the SO19 Armed Response Unit.

Ken Livingstone said that shootings like the Stanley case were rare. "I don't think anyone can describe our police as trigger-happy." Only "rare" and "I don't think" Ken. Let's have some statistics to support that statement.