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Perception, eh?

Sometimes you don't need to rant (actually most of the time you don't need to rant, but hey, it's fun!), sometimes it's simply best to let the numbers do the talking. So the social research institute at IPSOS MORI conducted some studies into the public's perception of social ills, then contrasted them with the actual figures. My favourites:

Public perception of pounds in every hundred of benefit claimed fraudulently? 25

Actual amount of benefit claimed fraudulently per hundred pounds? 70p

Public perception of percentage of the population that are immigrants? 31%

And the actual percentage? 14%

Public perception of the percentage of the population that's Muslim? 25% (One in FOUR? REALLY?)

Actual percentage at last census? 5%

Course this is only a representative sample indicative of my left wing bias, but that's statistics for you!

The question of course is WHY these are the perceived figures, but frankly it's too hot to think, so I'll leave that one for a later date.

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