There are lies, damn lies, statistics - and statistics that are beyond reason or point.
Today, for example, I read that a garden snail would take six years to travel round the M25 under its own power. This fact was used, with baffling ingenuity, to draw attention to the lack of women judges.
Unfortunately for the statistic - and leavings aside the constant mortal risk to the poor thing every tiime it was overtaken by a vehicle - snails have a maximum lifespan of a mere 5 years (say clockwise up to Junction 19), and that's if they have adequate water. 6 month detours to find a puddle on a slip road seem a distinct possibility.
I once calculated a statistic like that - the number of members of the Order of the British Empire (OBEs CBEs etc) equalled the entire adult and child population of Grimsby.
