The BBC's More or Less: Tim Harford explains - and sometimes debunks - the numbers and statistics used in political debate, the news, and everyday life.
Joined August 2011
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4 Apr 2025
Donald Trump's tariff calculations "don’t tell us anything" about unfair trade, says Thomas Sampson, assistant professor @LSEEcon 1/3
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4 Apr 2025
Sampson: “Bilateral trade deficits don't tell us anything about whether one country is taking advantage of another country or what barriers it's imposing on imports from that country. They just tell us about which country produces stuff that other countries want to buy.” 2/3
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4 Apr 2025
@TimHarford explains tariffs and trade deficits on the More or Less podcast: bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0l2j7d…
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16 Oct 2024
"That is brilliant."
Learn the maths hack from @robeastaway that blew the minds of @ChrisMasonBBC and @TimHarford
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9 Oct 2024
Should the government target persnuffle?
@BenZaranko @TheIFS tells @TimHarford how @RachelReevesMP could change the government's fiscal rule to allow more borrowing.
bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0jwdkr…
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20 Sep 2024
“You are both absolute nerds.”
@Samfr and @maxwell_marlow tell @TimHarford the rules for their somewhat intricate bet on the number of kids who will leave private school when VAT is introduced.
Story 4 on this week’s @BBCRadio4 More or Less.
bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0jr54c…
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19 Sep 2024
Has the NHS got a bad case of Baumol’s cost disease?
@TimHarford explains with the help of a string quartet and @BenZaranko of @TheIFS.
Story 3 on this week’s @BBCRadio4 More or Less.
bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0jr54c…
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19 Sep 2024
How much do asylum seekers cost the state?
@M_Sumption of @MigObs explains how the number has gone up from £8000 per person per year in 2018/9 to nearly £21,000 in the latest figures.
Story 2 in this week’s @BBCRadio4 More or Less.
bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0jr54c…
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18 Sep 2024
“Based on what you've told me, I don't think you really can reasonably extrapolate…”
@TimHarford presses Andrew Amoils @nwwealth on how they worked out 9500 millionaires might leave the UK this year.
Story 1 on this week’s @BBCRadio4 More or Less.
bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0jr54c…
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13 Sep 2024
Did More or Less make a terrible mathematical error?
We said 1 divided by zero was an impossible calculation. Our listeners said the answer was infinity.
@stecks explains why infinity is not the answer.
Story No.3 on @BBCRadio4 More or Less:
bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0jppsl…
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13 Sep 2024
When trying to solve a problem “is like turning around an oil tanker”, that suggests it’s going to take a very long time. But how long does it actually take?
Story No.5 on this week’s @BBCRadio4 More or Less.
bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0jppsl…
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12 Sep 2024
“Most policy and most government, you would hope, is based on evidence. But it turns out often the evidence base is very, very thin”.
@DavidHalpernCBE of @B_I_Team explains the findings of his new report.
Story No.4 on this week's More or Less:
bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0jppsl…
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11 Sep 2024
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband says the latest round of the renewable energy auction was “record-breaking”. That entirely depends which record you’re looking at.
Story No.2 on this week’s @BBCRadio4 More or Less:
bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0jppsl…
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11 Sep 2024
A viral WhatsApp message says illegal migrants receive more in benefits than pensioners. Is that right?
No says @clarabetteM of @FullFact.
Story No.1 on this week’s @BBCRadio4 More or Less:
bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0jppsl…
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27 Aug 2024
Do we eat a credit card’s worth of microplastics every week?
“It was a very powerful message. But the problem is it's wrong,” says @Jamie_Woodward_ @OfficialUoM
Find out why: bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0jl19w…
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25 Jul 2024
Is increasing turbulence making flying more dangerous?
@DrPaulDWilliams explains what's going on.
bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0jc76s…
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3 Jul 2024
“This is where it gets really scary exciting” - Professor Jouni Kuha @LSEStatistics tells us how it feels in the final stages of the #exitpoll.
Listen here: bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0j7xtx…
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3 Jul 2024
“It's a horrible situation to be in.” - @PJTheEconomist @TheIFS on the fiscal challenges facing the next government.
Listen here: bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0j7xtx…
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3 Jul 2024
“For a statistician, this activity has to be the ultimate prediction challenge.” - @firthstat on the art of the #exitpoll
bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0j7xtx…
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3 Jul 2024
Does the NHS have too many managers, or too few? @CharlotteWick10 from the @TheKingsFund explains what’s what.
bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0j7xtx…
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