Lies, dammed lies and politicians

The recent spat between the Conservative Shadow Home Secretary Christopher Grayling and Sir Michael Scholar, head of the Statistics Authority, seems to be a perfect example of what would happen if we were to spend too much time denigrating basic social science descriptive spadework. The 'facts' would be constructed by every Joe Six in bar room debate or, even worse , by politicians: enormous whoppers would routinely go unchallenged.
The latest sickening round of half-truths and misrepresentations is dissected on the BBC Home Editor Mark Easton's blog.