Thoughts on Finance, Current Affairs and General Consumer Ripoffs - Damn Lies and Statistics

Latest press release from Department of Health announcing the spectacular sum of £25 Million being invested into hospital Maternity services. However the press release also says that this sum is being split between "more than 100" hospitals. So the sum per hospital is an average of under £250,000. In terms of medical equipment this is a drop in the ocean and hardly worthy of a dramatic press release getting headlines on news bulletins. Watch out for these statistical tricks - bundle up a small amount of money across a lot of destinations and it will then sound like a lot of money that can be a press release.   £250,000 = not a lot of publicity when it is one hospital   £25 million = same sum but split over 100 hospitals and is now headline news!

Tesco stores have reported their crucial sales for the Christmas 2012 period showing that on the key like-for-like measure their sales increased by 2%. However that isn't the full picture as like-for-like sales compare sales this year against last year in shops open at the time.  Christmas 2011 was notoriously bad for tesco and sparked the profit warning that led to a dramatic drop in their share price. Comparing a very low sales number in 2011 with a better number for 2012:was always going to flatter this years results so although tesco may have done well it probably isn't as good as they claimed.