“TORTURE numbers, and they'll confess to anything”—so says Gregg Easterbrook, an American writer. The ministers and political staff at the Department for Work and Pensions are rapidly becoming some of the fiercest inquisitors. Over the last few months, as welfare cuts have started, questionable numbers have floated out of Iain Duncan Smith’s office into the public debate like raw sewage. Take the latest example. Yesterday morning, Mr Duncan Smith claimed that:

Around 1 million people have been stuck on a working-age benefit for at least three out of the past four years, despite being judged capable of preparing or looking for work.

As The Guardian, and separately, Full Fact, explain here, that claim relies on an extreme sleight of hand. Mr Duncan Smith appears to be claiming that one million people who could reasonably be expected to work are choosing not to. Yet, in reality, that one million includes single mothers who have children too young to go to school, people who are seriously ill but may eventually get better, and people who may be ill, but have yet to be tested. By adding “capable of preparing”, Mr Duncan Smith is just about telling the truth, but it's not exactly, well, honest.






For some reason—and I blame the innumeracy of British journalists—when politicians lie outright, they are treated like criminals, and yet when they torture data to tell stories which aren't true, journalists republish it as established fact. As long as that happens, politicians will continue to play fast and loose with numbers. But it does make me wonder: given how patriotic they all claim to be, why is it that Tories seem so determined to tell us that Britain is sinking into the abyss? It isn't.