But who will check the fact checkers?

The big new trend of the current election campaign is the rise of the self-appointed fact checker. It seems that trust in politicians has fallen so low that we’d rather get a second opinion from, ahem, a journalist. Channel 4 have made the biggest splash so far with their FactCheck* service, BBC online catches up with Election fact check* , while the pages of the Guardian are graced with ‘Truthwatch’.

But who will check the fact checkers? Could it be a job for the blogosphere? Why, I guess it could. So, first up on the dissecting table is today’s TruthWatch* from the Guardian.

This features an investigation into the utterances of Tory education spokesman Tim Collins and in particular his claim that  “what works in the teaching of reading is the proven, traditional method of phonics." Could this possibly be true?

Truthwatch refers to “a much-publicised study in Clackmannanshire in Scotland, which shows that synthetic phonics had a dramatic effect on literacy. The study of 300 children put them more than three years ahead in reading and almost two years ahead in spelling at the age of the 11.”

But then comes the shocking revelation that the Tories had somehow neglected to mention that “although the Clackmannanshire children were 3 years ahead on word recognition at 11, they were only three months ahead on comprehension.”

And so to the damning verdict: “There is no definitive evidence that one teaching method is better than the others. The Tories are jumping on a topical bandwagon to attack Labour's record on literacy.”

Now hang on, that’s an awfully big claim when the only evidence you’ve advanced is that the Clackmannanshire children were “only” three months ahead on comprehension. That’s a whole term’s worth, if not more. And the fact that they were even further ahead on reading and spelling doesn’t exactly weaken the Conservative argument, does it?

For the sake of completeness I should point out that Truthwatch also submits that “phonics is actually not the only aspect of teaching reading - most adults under 40 will have been taught by a range of strategies, including phonics, but with early emphasis on "whole-word" recognition in simple books.” What exactly is the point here? That Tim Collins is pretending that phonics is the only teaching method in use? Obviously, he isn’t – otherwise he’d hardly be arguing the case for more phonics.

So, sadly, the first verdict from this blog’s exciting new ‘FactCheckCheck’ service is a rather disappointing 2 out of 10.

Comments

[Bob B]

As for our government and IT, try these reports from the leading weekly computer mag for professionals:

The Criminal Records Bureau faced more criticism last week after it emerged that almost 200 people applying for public sector jobs were mistakenly identified as having criminal records because of glitches in the bureau’s £250m IT system. [April 2004]
http://www.computerweekly.com/articles/article.asp?liArticleID=130026&liArticleTypeID=1&liCategoryID=2&liChannelID=28&liFlavourID=1&sSearch=&nPage=1

A new IT system at the Criminal Records Bureau will cost the taxpayer £150m more than originally planned - an increase from the £68m overspend published in February - according to the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee.

The system, which was meant to speed up the process of responding to employers’ staff vetting requests, is now expected to cost £395m over the 10 years of the contract. Glitches with systems built by outsourcing supplier Capita and unforeseen changes to business processes in the bureau contributed to the overspend. [November 2004]
http://www.computerweekly.com/articles/article.asp?liArticleID=134717&liArticleTypeID=1&liCategoryID=2&liChannelID=28&liFlavourID=1&sSearch=&nPage=1

The UK has slipped in the world e-government rankings, according to the latest research from IT services and consulting group Accenture.

In its sixth annual e-government survey, Accenture ranked the UK 10th out of 22 countries for 2004. In 2003, using slightly different methodology, the UK was placed in eighth position, a fall from sixth in 2002. [April 2005]
http://www.computerweekly.com/articles/article.asp?liArticleID=137843&liArticleTypeID=1&liCategoryID=2&liChannelID=20&liFlavourID=1&sSearch=&nPage=1