I think we can see just why this Government has been such a failure from just one exchange on the radio today. Government Ministers simply do not understand, or take the trouble to understand their brief. I am being generous because there is another explanation, they are deliberately trying to misrepresent and lie about their own figures.
Look at this transcript from the radio interview (acknowledgment to Spectator Coffee House for this)
The interviewee is Immigration Minister Phil Woolas and the interviewer is Andrew Neil.
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PW: I think that the Spectator's analysis, perhaps not surprisingly, is confusing two completely separate things
AN: These are Office of National Statistics figures which we checked this morning. Do you accept that there are 1.7 million new jobs for people of working age between 16 and 64, correct?
PW: Yes
AN: And according to the Labour Force Survey, compiled by the Office of National Statistics. 1.67 million jobs went to foreign born workers
PW: That's not what they say. What they say is there have been 1.67million immigrant workers - immigrant workers are temporary workers - so what you're doing is conflating temporary workers, the total over 13 years, with permanent workers, and because it's similar to the new jobs created, you are taking a false logical step. This is an old trick that has been played in every election since 1964. And what it is saying is that the number of temporary immigrant workers is the same as the total number of new jobs. That is logically not true. It cannot be arithmetically true. It's like saying that 50,000 people go to watch Arsenal every match, there have been ten matches; therefore 500,000 people have been. In fact, it may be that the same 50,000 people have. And that is the statistical trick that is being pulled on you.'
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Using Woolas anology and to cut through the guff, the number of immigrants used in the survey is more equivilent to the 50,000 actually in the Arsenal Stadium at any one time.
I find it quite staggering that Government Ministers cannot get a proper grip on their brief. I dont think I have seen anything so incompetent (of foolishly deceitful) in all my time observing or participating in politics and that really is saying something.
You can read more detail and a better explanation of the sheer hash Woolas has made here.
http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/5898483/woolas-on-the-rack.thtml