So said that populist rabble-rouser Winston Churchill.
Certainly ‘Official figures’ can be misleading; are indeed often presented in
deliberately misleading ways. Even so, some official figures can be
illuminating, especially the less publicised ones. For instance, UK government
figures show that 80% of motorcycle accidents are caused by people other than the
motorcyclist him or herself, but the government chooses to keep very quiet
about that. Every motorcyclist has had the experience of picking himself up out
of the wreckage of his machine to be confronted by the car driver who has
knocked him down saying ‘Sorry mate; didn’t see you.’ There seem not to be any
official figures for the number of car drivers who have had their licenses
revoked because they cannot see objects as large as a motorcycle; I suspect the
figure is zero.
But it was some other official UK government figures I
wanted to talk about, or rather just present; make of them what you will:
UK minimum wage: £6.50 an hour.
Number of people currently being illegally paid less than
this: 287,000.
Number of employers during David Cameron’s government who
have been fined for underpaying: 2.
Total fine paid by the two employers: £4,696.
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