Re: Stopping the boats

Ben Newsam <[email protected]> wrote:

> Sn!pe wrote, though the Organization header says "Sn!peCo World Wide
> Wading Birds":
> 
> >Ben Newsam <[email protected]> wrote:
> >
> >> Sn!pe wrote, though the Organization header says "Sn!peCo World Wide
> >> Wading Birds":
> >> 
> >> >Kerr-Mudd, John <[email protected]> wrote:
> >> >
> >> >[...]
> >> >> > Exactly.  8% more people voted to leave than to stay, 
> >> >> > however much the remainder might hate that fact.
> >> >> > 
> >> >> You've erroneously doubled the figure.
> >> >[...]
> >> >
> >> >Not so, I stand by my figure.  Check your percentage arithmetic.
> >> >
> >>
> >> Well, let's deconstruct this a bit. The result of the referendum was
> >> 51.89% for Leave, 48.11% for Remain, which gives an official margin of
> >> 3.78%, ie less than 4%, and a figure that most would agree is correct.
> >> What you have done is somewhat disingenuous, in that you have done a
> >> further calculation and taken that 3.78 as a percentage of 48.11,
> >> giving 7.85 that you have rounded up to 8. A percentage of a
> >> percentage is not a valid way of interpreting the numbers.
> >>
> >
> >In what way is my statement not correct and factual?
> 
> Results of elections are never reported in the terms you quote, except
> by people trying to magnify the numbers. I don't know why you would
> want to do that, except perhaps because you feel guilty about 4% not
> being quite decisive enough, or maybe you feel guilty about the number
> of gullible people who believed all the Leave lies.
>

I'm surprised at you, Ben, you've silently snipped my example.  
Here it is again, please explain why it's wrong:

----
In what way is my statement not correct and factual?

£1.08p is 8% more that £1.00p
£0.52p is 8% more than £0.48p (within rounding error)

8% more people voted to leave than to stay, 
however much the remainder might hate that fact.
----

This ignores all the people who couldn't drag their arses down 
to the polling stations, obvs., but of course, they don't count.

-- 
^Ï^.       Sn!pe, PA, FIBS      -      Professional Crastinator 

My pet rock Gordon just is.