More Or Less A Wonderful Programme

* Britain has more surveillance cameras per head of population than anywhere else in the world.

* The death rate falls when doctors go on strike.

* Half a million chickens are thrown away each day in the UK.

* Over 400,000 ballot papers were spoilt in the recent London election.

You might well have seen any of the above headlines in newspapers recently. They all represent stories currently doing the rounds in the media based on statistics. But how accurate are the statistics and how robust is the analysis? That's an interesting question.

It is the nteresting question which is the subject of one of the best BBC Radio 4 programmes on air at the moment : More or Less. Like so many of the best BBC programmes, it is a co-production with the Open University. The idea of More or Less is delightfully simple : focus on some of the statistics which are endlessly used by the media and investigate the statistical significance of them. It sounds a bit dry and anorakki but it isn't, it's a wonderfully entertaining half hour. And the good news is that it is available as a podcast, and for that reason I am delighted to present the BBC More or Less Podcast with the News From Nowhere Podcast of the Month award for May 2008.

And because I know that I have whet your appetite, here are the programmes' take on the above statistical stories.

Surveillance Britain : I have often heard the claim that we have more surveillance cameras than anywhere else in the world repeated. On investigation, it turns out that this claim is based on one minute survey carried out a good few years ago. The survey was undertaken by counting the number of cameras on just two streets in Putney, counting the number of people living on the streets and multiplying the ratio up to represent the entire United Kingdom.

Deadly Doctors : The main statistical evidence for this oft-repeated story is a strike of doctors in one part of Israel a few years ago. During the three month strike the death rate did fall, but this can largely be explained by potentially dangerous medical procedures being postponed.

Chucking Chickens : Several leading newspapers recently reported the claim that we throw half a million chickens away each day in this country. Unfortunately, the first newspaper to read the research mis-read the numbers, by a factor of 100! All the other newspapers went on to copy the figures from the first inaccurate report.

Spoilt Ballot : It turns out that 400,000 ballot papers were listed as "spoilt" in the recent London Mayoral elections. But this did not represent large-scale electoral fraud - as at least one website claimed. In the ballot, electors had a second choice (the transferable vote systems being used). 400,000 voters chose not to make use of their second preference and their ballot papers were, quite rightly within the definitions, listed as being spoilt. This did not mean that their first choice was not counted, it was.

Thank You Mr Levin, I Understand Now

Having decided to initiate a "News From Nowhere Podcast of the Month Award", I spend some time each month trawling through the more unusual and exotic podcasts that are available throughout the world. One of the ever-present dangers facing the reasonably sane podcast reviewer is fruitcakes - deranged people who have decided to inflict their somewhat unbalanced views on the rest of humanity. The best tactic for filtering such people out is to stick to reasonably well-known platforms : one is unlikely to find a complete nutcase distributed by one of the major networks.

And then one day I happened to flick through the podcasts available from the mighty American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Network and downloaded an edition of the Mark Levin Show. I am still trying to decided whether I can get over the experience without therapy. I have to confess that I downloaded and listened to the podcast without checking out any information about Mark Levin and therefore I had no idea what to expect. Consequently - and this is no exaggeration - for the first ten minutes I was convinced it was a somewhat crude and repetitive comedy sketch. Slowly the realisation dawned that it was for real and I listened with shocked fascination for the rest of the eighty minute show. I wouldn't discourage anyone from giving it a try - as Sir Thomas Beecham said, "try everything once except incest and country dancing" - but be warned, you will need a strong mental constitution and a decent malt to try and consign the experience to oblivion.

Mark Levin is described by the ABC blurb as "one of America's preeminent conservative commentators and constitutional lawyers". His show consists of an extended rant against liberals, fellow-travellers, fifth columnists, democrats and almost everyone to the left of Genghis Khan. He seems to believe that anyone favouring taxing companies or reducing greenhouse gas emissions is giving comfort and support to the enemies of the USA. During the episode I listened to, he became fixated with the dangers posed by "Red China" who, he reported, were constructing James Bond-like concrete bunkers for massive fleets of nuclear submarines. He went into a lengthy and mostly incomprehensible attack on Hilary Clinton and her "genitalia" and even managed a passing comment on the local election results in the UK ("a massive blow for the socialists from the Labour Party"). Socialists in the Labour Party!!! Bless him, you have to chuckle don't you.

Towards the end of each programme he takes a few carefully screened phone-calls from people who share his world view. Having mentioned the "S" word in relation to his comments on the UK election results, one eleven year old phoned in and asked: "Mr Levin, sir, could you please tell me what socialism is". "I am glad you asked that question", he replied. "Imagine that you were playing softball with some friends and a big bully came along and took away your bat and ball. He then said that you could only play in future if you asked his permission and then you would get to play when and where he said. And he would make up the rules and then, irrespective of those rules, decide who had won. That's socialism my boy". The boy listened in awed silence and then said "Thank you sir, that is much clearer. I understand now, Mr Levin".

I know how the boy felt. I recognise the awed silence. Thank you Mr Levin. I understand now.

A Refreshing Brew With A Hint Of Coriander And Ginger

Regular NFN readers will have noticed that we have not made any Podcast awards for 2008. If the truth be told, the judging panel - Amy, my wheaten terrier, and myself - became a little dispirited last year when our highest award went to the Channel 4 News Morning Report show. After announcing the award - with more than a dash of hubris - on their website they then closed the show down a couple of months later. For the news, we now depend on the Guardian Daily podcast, but it's not getting an award because of the annoying number of times it repeats the URL of its website.

However, Amy and I have recently found a podcast which informs us and entertains us during even the longest, and often wettest, of our walks. It is a splendid example of how a small group of enthusiasts can launch their own "radio station" and broadcast to the world. Step forward Pacific Brew News Radio.

The radio station is run by a handful of beer enthusiasts on the west coast of America. The last few programmes have been hosted single-handed by a guy called Rick Sellers who is frighteningly knowledgeable about beer, but wonderfully infectious in his enthusiasm for the subject. In the most recent programme he drinks, and reviews, a glass of Rogue's Half-e-Weizen on air and you want to rush out and buy a bottle (this is difficult because, to the best of my knowledge it is unavailable this side of the Atlantic). He talks about the San Diago Brewers Fair and you want to buy an airline ticket. He describes some hidden beer enthusiast's bar he has visited and he makes you want to drop what you are doing and find the nearest decent pub.

The remarkable achievement of the podcasts is that they have the capacity to be so boring and so insular, and yet they are just the opposite. Even if you are not particularly fond of beer - in which case I grieve for you - I defy you to listen to one of the shows and not be tempted to try a sip of whatever elixir they are praising. So, Pacific Brew News Radio has to win my Podcast of the Month Award. I only hope that in bestowing the award I do not condemn it to the same fate as Channel 4 Morning Report.

Catch The Egg

If you try to watch BBC television at the moment, you are beset by constant and annoying announcements which say something like "Missed this programme? Well never mind because you can watch it on your computer using the BBC iPlayer" (which, if you think about it, is a bit like saying "give me a call if you don't get this letter"). They are annoying for several reasons, the main one being that - try as I might - I cannot get the iPlayer to work on my computer. The help page suggests that the problem is a conflict with my Norton Ant-Virus, but I have followed all the instructions on how to overcome this, none of which have had the slightest effect. In so doing, I have scripted my Norton to allow cookies, pop-ups, and tins of sardines from bbc.co.uk. I have given free rein to everyone from the Director-General to the BBC lift operator to wander around the inner-sanctums of my hard drive. But still all I get is an annoying grey screen.

The maddening thing is that the BBC has been concentrating on the development of their blasted iPlayer at the expense of almost everything else. Their podcasts are still disappointingly few and far between - although now you can catch up with what is happening in Ambridge whilst you walk the concrete urban sidewalks. They also seem to have adopted a path-of-least resistance in relation to the copyright problems that surround the new media. Why, for example, can't you "listed again" to Desert Island Disks - "for rights reasons" - whilst you can "listen again" to any number of Radio 2 programmes? And what is the point in turning a programme like Jazz Library into a podcast when you limit yourself to playing a 30 second bite (more like a sound bit) from each of the records discussed? It's like the audio equivalent of a prick-teaser.

Most annoying of all, why does the BBC limit the availability of its back-catalogue of radio programmes to just 7 days? If I can turn on my Cable TV station and access "television on demand" why can't I access "radio on demand"? It can't be storage - you could store a weeks' radio broadcasts in the space it takes to store one Eastenders episode. I apologise for starting the week with a moan but there are good reasons. The current BBC "Book At Bedtime" is a ten-part serialisation of a book by Betty Macdonald called "The Egg and I". I was not familiar with the book and came across it by chance whilst paging through the BBC website. I will not waste time summarising the plot - suffice it to say it is very funny and extremely well written. Go to the BBC website straight away and catch-up with the episodes you might have missed. It started last Monday, so the daft BBC seven-day rule means that you have until this evening to listen to the first episode. Catch it quick - it's worth it.