From the BBC 8 January 2010:
It is estimated alcohol abuse in England and Wales kills 40,000 people (1) and costs the economy £55 bn (2) every year.
*ahem*
1) From the National Statistical Office: There were 8,724 alcohol-related deaths in 2007, lower than 2006, but more than double the 4,144 recorded in 1991.
2) From The Metro, 22 July 2008: Pubs and clubs have been ordered to help stop binge drinking, amid claims that alcohol abuse costs the country £25 billion a year.... an official report showed alcohol abuse cost the equivalent of £415 a year for every man, woman and child in Britain.
*/ahem*
Fudge is in the air
33 minutes ago
8 comments:
The thin air number-plucker is working overtime as the righteous try to get as much legislation through this gullible bunch of fools before the GE.
DP, the thin air number plucker is shit as his or her job. He or she revised deaths up 8k to 40k, but only doubled the cost. By rights, the cost should have been revised up from £25 billion to £125 billion (around one tenth of GDP).
"Even small reductions in the number of people misusing alcohol could save the NHS millions."
You wouldn't trust this lot to run a whelk stand, would you? They'd cut the number of whelks they were selling because they had to spend more time clearing up the extra litter.
These figures are unbelievable - mostly because one suspects they actually are untrue. Inflated by including many things that should not be.
The ultimate aim being to justify more and higher taxes, plus more intrusive rules, regulations and interefernce in our lives.
Phil, the 8,000 deaths a year is quite probably true, but that is a tiny figure out of half a million deaths a year. All the other figures are completely made up, of course.
Mark, You may be broadly correct on the 8,000, though even that I would take with a hint of a pinch of salt.
I do have some knowledge of how some organisations decide what to measure and what and how to count that. So I view much of the statistics bandied about (not just in this instance) with a jaundiced eye and often find myself I trying to work out how they might have spun them.
Phil, to be fair, who gives a toss about the 8,000? The true figure may be 50,000, that means one-in-ten of us. Even if that were true, how many people would stop drinking? I certainly wouldn't :) Or the figure may be 5,000 - it's largely a question of definition anyway.
True. Nor would I. They could make it illegal and people would not stop drinking.
The point is there are lies, damned lies and statistics, you certainly can't trust a politician's statistics, they will be promoting an agenda.
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