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Adam Lewis, Editor
"There are lies, damned lies and statistics." So the famous saying goes. Yet, while not calling them liars, perhaps the sentiment ought to be more carefully reflected upon after the Office for National Statistics' (ONS) recent estimate of first-quarter British GDP growth.
The ONS's announcement that Britain had once again fallen into recession following a 0.2% decline in output in the first quarter of this year, its second consecutive quarterly contraction, sparked a flurry of negative headlines and was the basis of heated political debate. The Labour party used it as an exercise in savaging the government's austerity plan, while national confidence in the economy slumped.
What a difference it might have made then,...