The numbers will admit to anything when tortured long enough

diamond geezer rips a press release headline to shreds using math and logic. The headline "Half of north Londoners never cross the river for work or play" is a great example of fudging the data.

I'd like to apologise wholeheartedly and unreservedly for my post on Sunday in which I accused arts collective CultureLine of telling lies in a press release. I have since engaged in email conversation with the good folk at Colman Getty, the PR Agency responsible, and they've made me aware that one of my underlying assumptions about the survey was incorrect. By jumping to conclusions without seeking the facts, I have entirely misrepresented how the headline in the press release was obtained. Sorry, that's unforgivable. So on their behalf I feel it's only right to set the record straight. Because it turns out that the truth is much worse than I previously thought.

In the end, 93% of north Londoners sometimes cross the river for play.