300 episodes

Tim Harford and the More or Less team try to make sense of the statistics which surround us. From BBC Radio 4

More or Less: Behind the Stats BBC Radio 4

    • Business
    • 4.6 • 2.7K Ratings

Tim Harford and the More or Less team try to make sense of the statistics which surround us. From BBC Radio 4

    Is the UK really ahead in cutting carbon emissions?

    Is the UK really ahead in cutting carbon emissions?

    The UK Prime Minister has announced several changes to key policies designed to help Britain reach net zero by 2050. In a major speech justifying what many see as a watering down of commitments, Rishi Sunak championed Britain’s achievements to date in cutting emissions. But where does the UK actually stand compared to other countries? Tim Harford talks to Hannah Ritchie from Our World in Data and author of “Not the End of the World”.

    Presenter: Tim Harford
    Producers: Nathan Gower, Jon Bithrey
    Editor: Richard Vadon
    Sound Engineer: James Beard

    (Photo: Smoke rising out of chimneys at Ratcliffe on Soar power station
    Credit: David Jones / PA)

    • 8 min
    NHS consultant pay, Net Zero claims and Scotland's ferry woes

    NHS consultant pay, Net Zero claims and Scotland's ferry woes

    NHS consultants in England are striking over a pay offer of 6%. We look at whether they are paid an average of £120,000 a year and examine how much their pay compared to inflation has fallen. Also we fact check some of the claims Rishi Sunak made in his net zero speech, ask whether Britain is really that bad at building infrastructure compared to other countries and investigate the real levels of cancellations at Scotland and the UK's largest ferry company, Calmac.

    • 30 min
    Which city has the longest canals?

    Which city has the longest canals?

    After a listener emailed More or Less to ask whether world famous Venice or the slightly less famous English city of Birmingham has more canals, Daniel Gordon decided to investigate and widen the question to the whole world – with some interesting answers.

    Guests: Giovanni Giusto, Venice City Councillor
    David Edwards-May, Inland Waterways International
    Dr Hamed Samir, University of Basra
    Bai Lee, Editor of China Grand Canal

    Presenter/Producer: Daniel Gordon
    Series Producer: Jon Bithrey
    Editor: Richard Vadon
    Sound Engineer: David Crackles

    (Picture: Gondola in Venice
    Credit: Jane Worthy/BBC)

    • 9 min
    Social housing, NHS workforce and Liz Truss debt claims

    Social housing, NHS workforce and Liz Truss debt claims

    Long: Housing minister Rachel Maclean claimed the government has built a record number of social rent homes. Tim and the team investigate. Following Lucy Letby’s conviction, we look at how sentences for murder have changed over the past few decades. Plus after Liz Truss’s speech this week defending her short stint as Prime Minister, Tim reminds us how her mini-budget raised borrowing costs and might have pushed up the national debt even more. And will 1 in 11 workers in England really work for the NHS by the middle of the next decade?

    Presenter: Tim Harford
    Series producer: Jon Bithrey
    Producers: Daniel Gordon, Natasha Fernandes, Nathan Gower, Charlotte McDonald,
    Editor: Richard Vadon
    Production Co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele
    Sound Engineer: Rod Farquhar

    • 27 min
    How to approach the world through numbers

    How to approach the world through numbers

    How can we navigate our lives in a more efficient and satisfactory way? It’s a question Professor David Sumpter is looking to answer in his new book, Four Ways of Thinking. He talks to Tim Harford about four different approaches to our day to day challenges.

    Presenter: Tim Harford
    Producer: Jon Bithrey
    Sound Engineer: Andy Fell
    Editor: Richard Vadon

    (Picture: Conceptual illustration of mathematics
    Credit: Science Photo Library / Getty)

    • 9 min
    Skin cancer, London rents and your great great great granddaughter

    Skin cancer, London rents and your great great great granddaughter

    A BBC report quoted a study that said 1 in 4 men and 1 in 5 women in the UK will get skin cancer in their lifetime. Tim Harford and the team look into the detail. Also London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan said London’s average rent will hit £2,700 a month next year, with the average take home salary £2,131. How accurate are the figures and what do they tell us about the affordability of the capital’s rental properties? We fact check Donald Trump’s recent claim that 35,000 Americans died building the Panama Canal. And as noughties band Busted re-release Year 3000 with the Jonas Brothers, just how many greats should be in front of “granddaughter” in that famous lyric?

    • 28 min

Customer Reviews

4.6 out of 5
2.7K Ratings

2.7K Ratings

realmojo90 ,

Cutting through the c…

More or Less is always informative and interesting and another i - well I can’t think of one - but rest assured the dulcet tones of Tim and team will set you on the path to rightness and righteousness. Love it and cherish it.

obafgkmn ,

salt needed

Used to be good, increasingly less so.
Knee-jerk partisan political bias and selective reporting. NB it’s a bbc production.

RWJ63 ,

Good but

An essential guide to fact checking numbers, especially those spouted by politicians. My only gripe is the scripted banter and unnecessary sound effects which somewhat dumbs down the programme.

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