BIG BRAINS ARE WATCHING YOUClearly, they’ve been bombarded with enquiries about the unpleasantness emerging from Fukushima, and the strongly expressed allegations about entirely normal levels of testicular cancer, vaginal bleeding and stomach haemorrhage present among the unfortunate crew members of USS Ronald Reagan following its visit to the site in 2011.
So as these two best sources have disappeared from the radar, I’ve lodged a question with Uncle Sifta Sam’s general military stats about the levels of such ailments on other naval ships perhaps more fortunate in the itineraries they were handed three years ago. Side by side comparison is as good a way as any of putting a stop to the usual mud-slinging on such issues. But I am grateful for the thoughtful contribution of Slogger Chris.
I’ve also written further today to the Bonner legal practice in California (who were representing the 75 alleged victims) and not as yet been blessed with a reply. It looks a little like, after the judge ‘threw out’ the case some weeks back, Charles Bonner has back-tracked…which is worrying.
All that said, you have to be concerned about the track record on this sort of debate: Tepco and the Tokyo Olympians lied their heads off about the seriousness of the situation from Day 1, two design engineers involved in the original reactor design resigned on principle about cost-cutting, the judge’s anti-complainant ruling was (to say the least of it) logic-lite, and it took some British troops nearly sixty years to get compensation for being told that witnessing the nuclear blast at Christmas Island presented no danger so long as they turned their backs.
For the objective info on this one, stay tuned.
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Slogger JG writes to add this important addendum to this week’s Slog demolition of the ‘unemployment falling’ drivel we’ve been getting. He points out:
‘Another important point to note is that employment has failed to keep pace with population growth. The working age population has risen from 38.6m in 2001 to 41.7m in 2011 (3.1m). (This is census data.) Yet the number of jobs has only risen from 27.6m to 29.7m in that time (2.1m)…..This trend has continued from 2011 to the present day. On current population growth trends, I estimate that the number of jobs created has continued to lag growth in the working age population. The 65+ group now represents 3.6% of the workforce, up from 1.6% in 2001!’
I’ve long argued that this potty version of capitalism cannot sustain the population we have. Good to see that others agree.
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As to the general untrustworthiness of statistics, Slogger Lady JJ points me at this:
‘Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe has told Radio Four’s Today programme that whistleblowers’ reports “are being investigated, but statistics are generally accurate”. Nothing like investigating stuff with an open mind, that’s what I say. However, six years ago a middle-ranking detective in the Devon & Cornwall force told me that, come the year end, “it’s routine for the senior ranks to grab your stats and start adding, subtracting, and moving things about…anything to hit the targets”.
Whistle Blower Tom Winsor, the chief inspector of constabulary, has written to Hogan-Howe asking for an explanation, after his inspectors found that more 12% of incidents had been wrongly closed without a crime being recorded.
Hogan-Howe has a career axe to grind here, whereas Winsor doesn’t. The latter told the Home Affairs select committee last Tuesday that – rather than asking whether fiddling crime statistics was happening at all, the question was – “where, how much, how severe?” His overall view was that it was almost certain that some manipulation is going on in the recording of crime figures by police officers.
The evidence in favour of that conclusion is overwhelming. Let’s leave it at that.
Thanks to the Sloggers’ sharp eyes looking into all dark corners; it’s what helps make this place unique.
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