MARK EASTON TO THE RESCUE!

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Not a sheep notes the latest twist in the BBC's reporting of Gordon Brown's fiddling of statistics - or should that be their 'downplaying' of the story?
http://notasheepmaybeagoat.blogspot.com/2010/03/prime-minister-misleads-public-again.html
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In my post on the early stages of this story (on Saturday) I sneaked in a sly dig at the BBC's home affairs editor Mark Easton, who always seems happier attacking the Tories over their use of statistics than he does Labour http://beebbiascraig.blogspot.com/2010/03/brown-fiddles-figures-bbc-fiddles-story.html.
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Well, he's actually blogged about the rap over the knuckles for Brown (over his use of migration statistics) by the wonderfully-named Sir Michael Scholar of the UK Statistics Authority. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markeaston/2010/03/the_war_of_numbers_revisited.html *
His post though is little more than a damage limitation exercise on behalf of the Labour Party.
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By as early as his second paragraph Easton has sneaked in a sly dig at Chris Grayling

Two days ago, Chris Grayling, shadow home secretary and the man Sir Michael ticked off earlier this month for his use of crime stats..

This, of course, 'reminds' his readers that the Tories are at least as dodgy as Labour with their use of statistics, ignoring Labour's serial abuse of statistics - on knife crime (on which Easton himself reported) and defence spending being only the most famous recent examples.
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What has Easton to say of Brown's 'mistake'? After saying that the other stats Brown used in his podcast are 'fine', he calls it 'problematic'. Well, that's a kind way of putting it!
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Brown's restatement of the figures yesterday is described as 'proper' before Easton adds "It might be convoluted, even a bit dull. But it is statistically sound and Sir Michael give the PM credit in his letter".
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He then moves on to say that Brown was right all along anyhow:

I suspect Gordon Brown didn't mind spelling out the statistics in all their complexity. It was a sly dig at those who chose to alert the UKSA to his original slip by producing data that make a similar point.

So there, Chris Grayling and Sir Andrew Green!
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