Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.

My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.

As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.

What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,

poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.

If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC

Sounds.

Thank you for downloading more or less from the BBC.

This is the version of the programme first broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Here's Tim Halford.

Hello and welcome to more or less, your weekly guide to the numbers in the news and in life. I'm

Tim Halford. This week we'll reveal Ed Balls's political sleight of hand,

ask whether Margaret Thatcher was generous towards the National Health Service and present a striking

tale of coincidence.

We'll ask whether air pollution is really killing the population of the Shetland islands each year.

Not the actual residents of Shetland, but that many people, oh you know what I mean.

We'll also look at this question

well we were wondering how people know how far away the sun is and how big it is if we don't know

how big it is and how far away it is. You need both to calculate, I think.

But first, the Barnett formula. We had this email from loyal listener Neil McCartney.

We told that the Barnett formula means that over 1,600 pounds a year extra is spent on each person in Scotland.

How has this figure arrived at?

A good question. There's been lots of shouting about the formula but little explanation of exactly what it is.

...