Exposed: More Tory misuse of crime stats

Following Chris Grayling’s very public slap on the wrist for manipulating crime statistics yesterday, it has emerged that it is not only the Shadow Home Secretary engaging in sharp practice – backbench Tory MPs are doing the same off their own backs.

Justine-Greening As far back as last autumn, long before Grayling’s memos to Tory candidates, Putney MP Justine Greening falsely claimed on her blog that there had been a “burglary rise locally”, writing “locally we’ve recently also seen burglaries rise which is very concerning indeed”.

The statistics, however, tell a very different story: The burglary rate in every single ward in Putney fell in the year to October 2009.

And in July, she said:

“We’ve recently seen a large increase in burglaries”

The stats, again, prove her wrong – from May 2007 to July 2009 the burglary rate in Putney fell from more than 15 burglaries per thousand of the population to less than 10.

Earlier this week, Left Foot Forward reported Grayling’s ignorance on the inclusion of under-16s in the British Crime Survey, following the BBC’s eposé of his misrepresentation of crime statistics and his disastrous appearance on the Today programme.

• Hat tip: Stuart King

http://twitter.com/jhepplestone/status/8677924128 James Hepplestone

RT @leftfootfwd: Exposed: More Tory misuse of crime stats: http://is.gd/7KZDV
http://twitter.com/poblishlab/status/8677794547 Andrew Regan

@leftfootfwd "More misuse of Tory crime stats": Following Chris Grayling's very public slap on the wrist for… http://bit.ly/bAn1Wj #labour
http://twitter.com/elrikmerlin/status/8677836114 Elrik Merlin

RT @leftfootfwd: Exposed: More Tory misuse of crime stats: http://is.gd/7KZDV
http://twitter.com/poblishlab/status/8678170766 Andrew Regan

@leftfootfwd "Exposed: More Tory misuse of …": Following Chris Grayling's very public slap on the wrist fo… http://bit.ly/cn9zzx #labour
Paul Collins

No change there then! The right thrives on lies and fear.
A Zimbo

And like anybody believes any figures released by this lying bunch of lefties in government.
http://www.boriswatch.co.uk Tom

“And like anybody believes any figures released by this lying bunch of lefties in government.”

What, in London? That’ll be B. Johnson (Conservative) and K. Malthouse (Conservative), then, both of whom have used crime statistics recently to prove how their policies reduce crime…
http://twitter.com/2pallas/status/8679085715 Matthew

RT @leftfootfwd: Exposed: More Tory misuse of crime stats: http://is.gd/7KZDV < The Conservatives: restoring trust in politics. Or not.
http://twitter.com/bencooper86/status/8679241721 Ben Cooper

RT @2Pallas: RT @leftfootfwd: Exposed: More Tory misuse of crime stats: http://is.gd/7KZDV < The Conservatives: restoring trust in politics. Or not.
http://twitter.com/theday2day/status/8679283573 Adam White

RT @2Pallas: RT @leftfootfwd: Exposed: More Tory misuse of crime stats: http://is.gd/7KZDV < The Conservatives: restoring trust in politics. Or not.
Will

Chris Grayling Downfall movie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlwrZNaJ9HE
http://www.ubervu.com/conversations/www.leftfootforward.org/2010/02/exposed-more-tory-misuse-of-crime-stats/ uberVU – social comments

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This post was mentioned on Twitter by poblishLab: @leftfootfwd “More misuse of Tory crime stats”: Following Chris Grayling’s very public slap on the wrist for… http://bit.ly/bAn1Wj #labour…
A Zimbo

Give me a break Tom. You obviously fell hook line and sinker for the ZanuLiebour spin machine’s mendacious bullshit. Perhaps if I post this link to a more Left wing Pravdaesque govt mouthpiece you might be able to accept what we all in the population know to be the truth. Liebour lies!

Massaging the crime figures

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jul/20/crime-figures

Meanwhile, Home Office ministers added to the public’s growing mistrust and confusion over government statistics by introducing major changes to the rules for police crime recording so that – as one officer put it to me – “looking for trends in the police figures is now a bit like trying to read tea leaves.” This enabled them to persuade sections of the media that the Home Office’s British Crime Survey (BCS) was the only definitive measure of crime. Yet the BCS also had limitations – especially with regard to crime among young people in the most deprived inner-city areas; and it was completely ignored by Tony Blair when, in 2002, he made it his personal mission to get street crime down in the light of soaring police figures but at a time when the BCS was showing no increase in the problem.
http://twitter.com/tom7p/status/8679934535 Tom Pearson

A favoured Tory & BNP tactic RT @leftfootfwd: Exposed: More Tory misuse of crime stats http://is.gd/7KZDV
http://twitter.com/goodoldmj/status/8681617104 Martin Johnston

RT @leftfootfwd: Exposed: More Tory misuse of crime stats: http://is.gd/7KZDV #reasonsnottovotetory
http://freethinkingeconomist.com/2010/02/05/what-broken-society/ What broken society? « Freethinking Economist

[...] Much of the stuff covered in the article – such as declining crime stats – was no doubt covered in previous posts. In brief, when confronted with falling Crime stats, the dissenters say they are made up, in some way or another, and in such a way that they are more made up now, so that we have had a decline. I doubt we will ever agree. If anything, the Right seem to be doing more manipulating of stats, including my own MP. [...]
http://www.leftfootforward.org/2010/02/look-left-the-week-in-fast-forward-05-02-10/ Look Left – The Week in Fast Forward | Left Foot Forward

[...] in the British Crime Survey and that the murder and manslaughter have both decreased; and today, we exposed Tory MP Justine Greening for her false claims on burglaries in [...]