I gather, young man, that you wish to be a Member of Parliament. The first lesson that you must learn is, when I call for statistics about the rate of infant mortality, what I want is proof that fewer babies died when I was Prime Minister than when anyone else was Prime Minister. That is a political statistic.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Churchill argues that political statistics are often used selectively to prove a leader's success rather than to convey objective truth.
- In plain terms
- Politicians use numbers to show they did better than others, not necessarily to show the truth.
- What can you take from it?
- Be skeptical when statistics are presented to support a political claim.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How can we distinguish data truth from political spin?
- When is data used to manipulate rather than inform?
Another view
Sometimes accurate statistics are still useful for accountability.
More from Winston Churchill
If you wanted nothing done at all, Balfour was the man for the job.
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