Monthly Archives: February 2022
Viral tweet on wealth tax generating £250 billion for NHS is misleading
Trade unionist Howard Beckett has claimed that a 0.05% wealth tax on financial transactions would raise £250 billion per year, in a tweet shared thousands of times. Mr Beckett, who is Assistant General Secretary for the Unite union, says that in one year this could pay for a 15% pay rise for NHS workers until… Read More »
Police cars are exempt from having an MOT
A widely shared Facebook post contains a screenshot showing that a police car’s MOT certificate is “overdue”. This is an accurate reflection of what you’ll see, at the time of writing, if you search for the car’s registration number on the government’s MOT checking service. It does not mean that the car is in breach… Read More »
WTF Fun Fact 12413 – Antarctic Antics
Boris Johnson repeats misleading claim on number of people in employment
“430,000 more in employment now than there were before the pandemic began” Boris Johnson, 23 February 2022. At Prime Minister’s Questions Boris Johnson today repeated misleading statements about employment by claiming there are 430,000 more people “in employment” now than before the pandemic began. Figures from the Office for National Statistics show the number of… Read More »
Estimating vaccine effectiveness by comparing case rates is seriously flawed
A Facebook post claims that “raw data from a recent Vaccine Surveillance report from the UKHSA shows a sharp drop in vaccine effectiveness against infection in most age groups.” It doesn’t. There are various reasons why this data should not be used to estimate vaccine effectiveness. Similar assertions have been a common theme of Covid-19… Read More »
WTF Fun Fact 12412 – The Wonderful Betty White
The Code of…
25 Kickass Random Facts List #715
In 1999, financial analyst Harry Markopolos had informed the SEC that he believed it was legally and mathematically impossible to achieve the gains Bernie Madoff claimed. It took four minutes to conclude that his numbers did not add up, and another minute to suspect they were fraudulent. The post 25 Kickass Random Facts List #715… Read More »
Keir Starmer hasn’t voted 48 times to take the UK back into the EU
He [Keir Starmer] voted 48 times to take this country back into the European Union. Boris Johnson, 26 January 2022. He [Keir Starmer] voted 48 times to take this country back into the EU. Boris Johnson, 31 January 2022. The Leader of the Opposition not only voted 48 times to go back into the EU…… Read More »
News clip doesn’t prove Queen is being treated with ivermectin
A number of posts on Facebook claim that Queen Elizabeth II is being treated for Covid-19 with ivermectin, based on an error in a news report released by an Australian news broadcaster. A video, which features a doctor describing treatment options for elderly patients, has also been shared thousands of times on Twitter by users… Read More »