Available online
Description
Levelling the statistical playing field. If you adjust for the fact that some countries are richer than others, and some have more people in them, can we work out what the Olympic medal tally shoul...d look like, based only on those factors? Gun control. Last week's mass-shooting at a cinema in Colorado has - not surprisingly - intensified America's bitter and long-running argument with itself about gun control. The argument is political and highly partisan. But it is also practical: would tighter gun laws actually lead to fewer gun deaths? You might think it's obvious that they would. But it seems the evidence isn't quite that clear. Tax. The treasury minister David Gauke came in for some stick this week for arguing that people who pay plumbers and cleaners cash-in-hand, while not breaking the law, are immoral. Several commentators have argued that the problem is small beer compared to the huge amounts sheltered from the taxman by large companies and rich individuals. Are they right? Leaders' mums. Listener Mike Shearing wrote to us after noticing that the mums of post-war US presidents seem to have died very late, while British prime ministerial mothers seem to die young. Had he - he asked - found something of significance? He certainly had. How has Britain changed since 1908? A new book by researchers at the House of Commons Library charts in numbers how Britain has changed since it hosted the 1908 Olympics. Their findings may surprise you.
Levelling the statistical playing field. If you adjust for the fact that some countries are richer than others, and some have more people in them, can we work out what the Olympic medal tally shoul...d look like, based only on those factors? Gun control. Last week's mass-shooting at a cinema in Colorado has - not surprisingly - intensified America's bitter and long-running argument with itself about gun control. The argument is political and highly partisan. But it is also practical: would tighter gun laws actually lead to fewer gun deaths? You might think it's obvious that they would. But it seems the evidence isn't quite that clear. Tax. The treasury minister David Gauke came in for some stick this week for arguing that people who pay plumbers and cleaners cash-in-hand, while not breaking the law, are immoral. Several commentators have argued that the problem is small beer compared to the huge amounts sheltered from the taxman by large companies and rich individuals. Are they right? Leaders' mums. Listener Mike Shearing wrote to us after noticing that the mums of post-war US presidents seem to have died very late, while British prime ministerial mothers seem to die young. Had he - he asked - found something of significance? He certainly had. How has Britain changed since 1908? A new book by researchers at the House of Commons Library charts in numbers how Britain has changed since it hosted the 1908 Olympics. Their findings may surprise you.
| Series: | More or less |
|---|---|
| Episode | 3 |
| First transmission date: | 2012-07-27 |
| Original broadcast channel: | BBC Radio 4 |
| Published: | 2012 |
| Rights Statement: | Rights owned or controlled by The Open University |
| Restrictions on use: | This material can be used in accordance with The Open University conditions of use. A link to the conditions can be found at the bottom of all OU Digital Archive web pages. |
| Duration: | 00:30:00 |
| + Show more... | |
| Producer: | Richard Knight |
| Presenter: | Tim Harford |
| Contributors: | Tim Harford; Wesley Stephenson; Dan Polsby; Mike Shearing; Dan Johnson; Charlotte McDonald; Meghan Busse; John J Donohue; John Lott Jr; Oliver Hawkins; George Leeson |
| Publisher: | BBC Open University |
| Subject terms: | Economics; Mathematics; Statistics |
| Production number: | AUDA806B |
| Available to public: | no |
