I'm going to include this attributed statement from Oliver Letwin, the UK Conservative Party’s Shadow Chancellor, because it illustrates wonderfully the uses to which facts can be put:
Mr Letwin said huge amounts of money were being used to fund a Civil Service the same size as the population of Sheffield.
Why, that’s terrible! That’s horrible! That’s . . . um, how many people live in Sheffield, anyway? (417,900 in 2003, according to some cheesy Google-based research I just did.)
Here, we have a superb example of the Context-Free Fact. Is that too many civil servants? Too few? How does that compare with other countries? Does that include doctors and nurses in the NHS, lawyers in Legal Aid? It’s clear that Mr Letwin doesn’t approve, but on what basis does he not approve? How many civil servants would be the right number?
Facts, even if 100% accurate, are useless without context.
Thus, when George Bush’s EPA touts its Green credentials by announcing that it will spend a huge, enormous, whopping $37.5 million on Energy Star, perhaps the most successful energy conservation program the Federal government has come up with, it pays to know that this is $12.5 million less than has been spent on it in previous years, and they are in fact cutting, not expanding, this program. Just for example.
posted 22:55