Statistics and Choices

At Left Foot Forward, Ranjit Sidhu, founder of Statistics into Decisions, discusses higher education funding in the UK. In his discussion he says:

this country is spending far lower than any other OECD country and actually half that of the USA on education.

This claim about spending half what the USA does comes from a report from the Russell Group[pdf]. That report states:

At 2.9% of GDP, the US spends more than twice what the UK does.

Earlier in the article Mr Sidhu has noticed the point about different population sizes pointing out that:

With about 5 per cent of the population of China it has an economy more than half its size.

Yet here he seems to have forgotten about that. Nor has he read much of the report, it seems. Just two lines earlier the Russell report states:

The UK spends approximately $15,447 (USD) per student, while the US spends $25,109.

By my reckoning that's 1.6 times as much not twice. But crucially, apart from not considering population sizes, Mr Sidhu has not considered the source of this funding. In fact, 66% of the funding in the US comes from private sources whereas in the UK it is 35%. Some quick maths and we find that the taxpayer pays $10,040.55 for each student in the UK but only $8,537.06 per student in the US.

So when the headline says:

We can afford to fund our universities, the fact is we choose not to 

he may be entirely correct. But he is not correct to suggest that in order to keep up with America the taxpayers should be forced to pay.

Smearing Melanie Phillips

Further to my post below about the guilty by association attempted by Left Foot Forward. Joss Garman tries to paint Philips as a supporter of the English Defence League. He cites one article and selectively quotes from it. However, the same article states:

As for the ‘far right’, the EDL furiously protests that it has no connections with the BNP and stands against them.
But one or two individuals in the EDL have been associated with the BNP in some form or other. Most tellingly of all, EDL leaders have admitted that it is opposed not only to Islamist extremism but to ‘all devout Muslims’ — a BNP-style pitch.

She also describes the EDL as "extremists". In fact, the entire point of her article, it seems, was to equate the BNP and EDL to Islamists. Hardly defending those groups then.

But no matter because, as Garman points out:

One EDL blog also features a prominent link to Phillips’ website.

So although he tried guilt by association it's actually just a smear job.

Actually, it's worth pointing out that the only "prominent link" I could find on that blog was an entry in their blog roll.

Association is All the Evidence They Need

Over at Left Foot Forward, "Evidence-based political blogging", Joss Garman writes that:

Melanie Phillips is inspiration behind Tea Party anti-Muslim leader

The evidence? Geller (the Tea Party anti-Muslim leader) has praised Phillips.

The post goes further though. Apparently the EDL is trying to link up with the Tea Party in America. Geller has expressed support for the EDL, as has Phillips. The unstated implication is that not only is Phillips the inspiration for Geller but also somehow actively involved in making this link, maybe?. Oh, and crucially:

One EDL blog also features a prominent link to Phillips’ website.

Not exactly rigorous is it?

UPDATE: The claim that Phillips in any way supports the EDL is a smear. See here.