The state-owned Forensic Science Service, which employs 1,600 people and provides services to police in England and Wales, is to be wound up.

Bad Science writer Ben Goldacre has a great post on his blog titled: “The Daily Telegraph misrepresent a scientist’s work, then refuse to correct it when he writes to them.” So, on the 1st of January the Telegraph’s science correspondent wrote this piece: “Greenhouse gases could have caused an ice age, claim scientists” was the headline.

Larry Elliott brings us an interesting story: the answer to the puzzle lies in the way the ONS measures the value of financial services. Although this has a name that only a number-cruncher could come up with – Financial Intermediation Services Indirectly Measured (FISIM) – it is actually quite a simple concept.

Daily Telegraph, 12 December 2008: “Recession pulls hemlines down“. Daily Telegraph, 6 March 2009: “Hemlines rise during economic downturns”. But perhaps it is neither up nor down? Daily Telegraph, 5 February 2009: “the relationship between fashion and the economy is often more subtly complex than that”. Never let it be said the Daily Telegraph doesn’t cov...

What's one way to cope with negative headlines about the collapse of capitalism and the greed of financial services companies if you happen to be a financial services company? Simple...change the company's name and airbrush the C-word from history. I reproduce in full an email release I have just received. Dear All,

Irena M Milloy, writing in The Daily Telegraph letters, asks: "How much overdue, essential equipment, the lack of which places our troops on active service in an even more vulnerable position, could be bought with the misappropriated claims money?" Such a deceptively simple question deserves an answer, and that is "very little indeed". With 646 MPs claiming ACA, even if you took the view that the ...

Another letter, this one from today's Times. It makes a simple point, but one that frustratingly few seem to grasp: financial services do not create wealth, but merely shuffle it about: Sir, Manufacturing remains one of the few ways of creating wealth for the country. Financial services do not — they recycle other people’s wealth. And when people have less to recycle, or when they choose to re...

Today in the House of Lords, Gillian Shephard has a debate on the functioning of Children's Services Departments in local authorities in England and why they seem to be failing vulnerable children. I spoke to her about it a couple of days ago and she told me that since 1997 there have been 69 green and white papers affecting children, nine health service reoganisations and seventeen Acts of P...

The Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph are, somewhat belatedly, gleefully reporting the "outing" of a military fantasist by habituées of he British Army Rumour Service website, which happened a couple of months back back in April, - see their ARSSEpedia wiki page on Jim McAuley See Daily Mail - Soldier quits after Facebook claims of serving with SAS and killing 100 people are exposed as lies Daily...

The Telegraph reports that at least seven children have been taken away from their parents and placed into care because social services deemed that they were too fat. Earlier this month, Tam Fry, a member of the National Obesity Forum's board, told a conference that youngster over-fed by their parents should be treated as victims of abuse, as happens with malnourished children. Another bloody...