That's fucking stupid

Posts Tagged ‘BBC’

“Drugs deaths up by 67% in Wales in three years” screams the BBC, ensuring that the buzzword “alarming” is thrown in*.

If you the copy/paster journalist had read the report, they’d realise that the researchers have improved their data gathering techniques this year (27 unrecorded cases in Wales in last year’s report), so the “67%” may indeed be an exaggeration.

Oh, and deaths caused by amphetamine and cocaine were down by around a third nationwide (15% to 12%, and 5% to 3% respectively).

But that sort of story wouldn’t generate clicks, would it?

.

* cf. “billowing” regarding fires and “rocking” regarding earthquakes

** remind you of the whole MMR autism thing, perchance?

From today’s news headlines:

OMG KIDS TAKING MORE DRUGS. EVERYBODY IS ALARMED!!!

Let’s take a look at that a bit more closely, shall we? Here’s the text from the actual report:

Police recorded drug offences increased by six per cent compared with 2007/08, following an increase of 18 per cent between 2006/07 and 2007/08. Increases in recent years have been largely attributable to increases in the recording of possession of cannabis offences… In 2008/09 possession of cannabis increased by six per cent compared with 2007/08. This increase continues an upward trend in recent years, with possession of cannabis offences recorded by the police rising by 90 per cent since 2004/05. This rise has been largely associated with the increased use of powers to issue cannabis warnings.

and

The [British Crime Survey] is also used to monitor trends in drug use and the figures are published annually. The BCS shows that overall illicit drug use among 16 to 59 year olds decreased from 11.1 per cent in 1996 to 9.3 per cent in 2007/08 and it is now at its lowest level since the BCS started measurement. This decrease is mainly due to successive declines in use of cannabis since 2003/04… This suggests the increase seen in recent years in police recorded drug offences is likely to be due to increase in police activity rather than in drug use.

Just thought I should highlight that. Once again: usage hasn’t risen: police have just been reporting it more.

Naive activist and Amnesty International vocal chord Tom Parker told the BBC:

“These are criminal acts. Torture is illegal under American law, it’s illegal under international law. America has an international obligation to prosecute the individuals who carry out these kind of acts.”

International law is a fantasy; it’s whatever the biggest boys in the playground say it is.

Lord Myners, Financial Services Secretary:

There is still the option for Sir Fred to do the right thing

Yes, yes there is. There is also still the option for criminals to hand themselves in, benefit cheats to hand back the cash, Gordon Brown to resign and George Bush and Tony Blair to set themselves on fire in downtown Fallujah.

The BBC is currently running articles about the stillbirth rate in the UK and how as many as 6500 children die each year before they are 4 weeks old. I understand that losing a child in this way must be truely horrific but with child mortality rates dropping, life expectancy increasing and a global population of around seven billion I have to ask: do we need another 6500 kids every year?