THE Scottish Tories and LibDems have hit headlines for their rather skewed approach to bar graphs – so, in the interests of consistency, we must report that the BBC has fallen victim to the same affliction.
On bar graphs, the Scottish Tories have a habit of drawing themselves much closer to the SNP than Labour, despite the numbers absolutely not showing that this is the case.
In their heads, an 8.3% difference seems to look near identical to a 1.5% gap.
And some wonder why people don't trust politicians?
People don't trust the BBC either, but we suspect their error was a little more innocent – unless someone has an extreme grudge against John Major.
The licence-fee-funded corporation was looking ahead to what might be next for Boris Johnson after his Pyrrhic victory in a no-confidence vote.
READ MORE: Johnson likened to Monty Python’s black knight after surviving confidence vote
A bar graph was included in the article comparing previous Tory leader confidence votes.
Pollster Mark McGeoghegan noticed that not all was as it should be. He tweeted: "Pro-tip, @BBCNews - 63% is not, in fact, larger than 66%."
Pro-tip, @BBCNews - 63% is not, in fact, larger than 66%. pic.twitter.com/jrcZ1UDhhq
— Mark McGeoghegan 🌻 (@markmcgeoghegan) June 9, 2022
Indeed, according to the BBC, John Major's 66% fell short of Theresa May's 63%. This is not, in fact, how numbers work.
It's not the first time the BBC has had difficulty with numbers this week.
The Question Time panel has five conservatives – and that's supposedly balanced...
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