Biography:
About:
Education:
Career: Central Statistical Office, H. M. Treasury and the EU in Brussels in a variety of positions, 1981/87; UK Economist, Greenwell Montagu (now HSBC), bond analyst at Warburg Securities (now UBS), Chief Economist and Managing Director of Research (including equity, bond and FX analysis) at Nikko Europe, 1987 and 1999; joined FT in 1999 as Statistics Editor, responsible for the delivery of market information into the paper, managing a team of statistical researchers and writing on statistics topics. In 2007 wrote the 'It doesn't add up' column. Left the FT in 2010.
Current position/role: Vice president (product) at Timetric, a web-based publisher of economic and business data
- also writes/has written for:
Other roles/Main role:
Other activities:
- Council of the Royal Statistical Society, 1998/2003, chair of its Official Statistics Section, 2000/2003
- sat on the Statistics Advisory Committee of the ONS 1996/1999
- advised the House of Commons Treasury Committee;
- sat on the Council of the Society of Business Economists, inaugural Chairman of Financial Statistics Users' Group
Disclosures:
Viewpoints/Insight: Counting on the figures - No one likes lies or damned lies - but the jury is still out on statistics. BBC News Online looks at the figures which aren't necessarily facts - BBC News, 31st July 2000
Broadcast media:
Video:
Controversy/Criticism:
Awards/Honours: Society of Business Economists annual essay prize, 2002
Scoops:
Other:
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Books & Debate:
Latest work: Panicology OCLC 181069081 (with Hugh Aldersey-Williams) , 2008. Sceptics guide to assessing risk in a media driven society.
Speaking/Appearances: Has been a speaker at the OECD Forum on Key Indicators Statistics, Knowledge and Policy
Debate:
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Articles: 2007
no recent columns, reportage only - see: FT.com / search result
- Postal strikes cost London companies £304m... - Postal strikes cost London companies £304m, according to the London Chamber of Commerce. Yet the spokesman said there was no breakdown of this estimate - 22nd December 2007
- Online shopping is to overtake the high street at Christmas - Online shopping is to overtake the high street at Christmas, according to a survey showing that 34 per cent of respondents will do most of their shopping online compared with 31 per cent doing it on the high street - 15th December 2007
- A quarter of parents skip passages when reading to their children - A quarter of parents skip passages when reading to their children and one-third have difficulties helping with maths homework, according to a survey conducted for learndirect, the adult learning network - 20th October 2007
- Labour claims that best-ever school results are allowing “people to reach their full potential” - Labour claims that best-ever school results are allowing “people to reach their full potential”, and that their initiatives “have made a real difference to our education system” - 13th October 2007
- Racial divisions are growing in Britain - “Racial divisions are growing in Britain” was the last hurrah from the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), the publicly funded and independent body, in its final paper before it was replaced this month by the new Commission for Equality and Human Rights - 6th October 2007
- The working week is getting longer... - "The working week is getting longer", according to a recent news article, with the average employee spending the equivalent of an extra day at work every week, compared with 1997 - 29th September 2007
- Laws mandating seat belt use could save... - Laws mandating seat belt use could save 1,000 lives a year in Britain and 10 times that many injuries, we were told when legislation was introduced - and passed in 1983. Yet no country that introduced such laws can demonstrate it has saved lives, according to John Adams of University College London - 26th July 2007
- The average child between the ages of 11 and 13 is sinking the equivalent of five pints of lager a week - "The average child between the ages of 11 and 13 is sinking the equivalent of five pints of lager a week," declared one national Sunday paper recently - 21st July 2007
- Women are chatterboxes, while men cut to the point - Women are chatterboxes, while men cut to the point. That's the stereotype, and for the past few decades a set of figures has often been quoted to stand it up - 14th July 2007
- Women's savings are one-third less than men's - Women's savings are one-third less than men's - and childbirth and divorce can turn the gap into financial disaster, Fawcett, the equality campaigning group, said last month - 7th July 2007
- Can Moscow really be the most expensive city in the world, with London in the second slot? - Can Moscow really be the most expensive city in the world, with London in the second slot? That was the message of a recent, well- publicised survey by the Mercer consulting group - 30th June 2007
- An estimated 17,300 families were homeless in England in the latest quarter - An estimated 17,300 families were homeless in England in the latest quarter, down 17 per cent from the same period last year. Is this as huge an achievement as it appears? - 22nd June 2007
- "Circus artiste" is the most commonly given job title for Bulgarians and Romanians entering the UK - "Circus artiste" is the most commonly given job title for Bulgarians and Romanians entering the UK, according to the first published figures about these immigrants - 16th June 2007
- Can it really be true that "Britain tops the European jail league"? - Can it really be true that "Britain tops the European jail league"? Such headlines typically follow the release of Council of Europe figures that show England and Wales to have more people in jail per head of population than any other country in the European Union - 9th June 2007
- Slough's registered population is 117,600, according to official figures - Slough's registered population is 117,600, according to official figures, which means one of England's fastest growing towns in the 1990s is now high on the list of fastest shrinking cities - 2nd June 2007
- Four out of five DAB digital radio listeners rate the sound quality as excellent or good and 77 per cent say it is better than FM, according to a survey published by Ofcom, the telecoms regulator - 26th May 2007
- "Child porn sites have quadrupled" and "Child abuse is getting worse" - "Child porn sites have quadrupled" and "Child abuse is getting worse" are headlines that send shivers down the spines of right- minded people. But there are no government or "official" figures, either for Britain or internationally - 19th May 2007
- "Ninety per cent increase in beach litter" - "Ninety per cent increase in beach litter", says the Marine Conservation Society. There is nothing worse than stumbling across drinks bottles, burger wrappers, traffic cones and worse on the way from beach towel to water's edge, but just how reliable are the numbers? - 12th May 2007
- Truancy runs at 1 per cent in secondary schools - Truancy runs at 1 per cent in secondary schools, and two-thirds of pupils do not dodge lessons at all, according to the Department for Education and Skills. This would seem to justify congratulating the government on its successful initiatives - 5th May 2007
- Five thousand nurses, scream the headlines, are being treated for back pain... - Five thousand nurses, scream the headlines, are being treated for back pain because there are so many more obese patients on hospital wards. Union leaders are worried - 28th April 2007
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