Spies, care homes, and ending sneak peeks

More or Less: Behind the Stats

BBC

Business, Mathematics, Science, News Commentary, News

4.6 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 26 May 2017

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Can security services follow everyone known to them?

The attack on Manchester Arena took place exactly four years since the killing of Drummer Lee Rigby in Woolwich. Back in 2013 we broadcast an interview with the former Head of MI5, Dame Stella Rimmington, about the difficulties of monitoring people who have been flagged up to the services. We are re-visiting that interview.

Chances of ending up in a care home

There are around 11.6 million people over the age of 65 in the UK, but how many need social care services? A listener got in chances to say that he was 72 - what are the chances that he will need social care services in his lifetime? We look at the numbers of people in both residential care and receiving formal care services in the home currently.

Penalty shoot outs update

A few weeks ago we explained UEFA's new procedure for carrying out penalty shoot outs. We bring news of how that system is playing out, and how a loyal listener has spotted a famous pattern in Blur's song, 'Girls and Boys'.

Stop sneak peak access

For years statisticians have been calling for an end to the practice of allowing ministers and officials to see official numbers before everyone else. Why does it matter? We tell the strange tale exploring whether economic data is leaked to City traders before its official publication. Could pre-release access to Government statistics be behind strange movements on financial markets? With help from Mike Bird of the Wall Street Journal, and Alex Kurov of the University of West Virginia, we take a look at the evidence.

Also - a tribute to Sir Roger Moore.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.6	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:08.4	As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable
0:14.3	experts and genuinely engaging voices. What you may not know is that the BBC
0:20.4	makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,
0:24.6	poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.
0:29.7	If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.
0:36.0	This is the BBC.
0:40.0	Hello and thank you for downloading the longer Radio 4 edition of More or Less, first broadcast on the 26th of May 2017.
0:48.0	Hello and welcome to More or Less, your guide to the numbers all around us.
0:53.3	This week, the mathematics of Blur and the statistics of social care.
0:58.1	The most famous number in cinema, 007, and the curious case of sensitive government data releases that keep seeming to leak to city traders.
1:07.0	Someone said, there's a rumor going round, it's 1.6%, not 1.4%. And lo and behold, when the number came out a few minutes later, it was 1.6%.
1:18.0	But first, this week we could think of little else, but the terrorist attack at Manchester Arena.
1:23.8	The Home Secretary Amber Rudd has confirmed that the suicide bomber Salmonella
1:28.6	was known to the security services.
1:31.2	So some commentators have been asking what's being done to monitor people who are on the radar of the police or security services could they have been doing a better job.
1:40.0	These are unfortunately familiar questions.
1:44.0	The attack happened exactly four years after drummer Lee Rigby was murdered on the street in
1:48.8	Woolwich.
1:49.8	Back then, the media criticized the security services for not keeping proper tabs on people known to them.
1:56.0	At the time, I spoke to Dame Stella Rimmington, the former head of MI5 about this very issue.
	...

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