The Tiger That Isn’t

Seeing Through a World of Numbers

Michael Blastland and Andrew Dilnot

ISBN 1846681111

ISBN 13 9781846681110

July 2008

Price £7.99

Paperback, 192 pp.

Buy this book at amazon.co.uk

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Subject: Mathematics

Mathematics scares and depresses most of us, but politicians, journalists and everyone in power use numbers all the time to bamboozle us. Most maths is really simple – as easy as 2+2 in fact. Better still it can be understood without any jargon, any formulas – and in fact not even many numbers.

Most of it is commonsense, and by using a few really simple principles one can quickly see when maths, statistics and numbers are being abused to play tricks – or create policies – which can waste millions of pounds. It is liberating to understand when numbers are telling the truth or being used to lie, whether it is health scares, the costs of government policies, the supposed risks of certain activities or the real burden of taxes.

‘This delightful book should be compulsory reading for everyone responsible for presenting data and for everyone who consumes it.’
— Sunday Telegraph

‘In this witty and fascinating book he explains to us laymen how to make sense of numbers and how we can avoid having the wool pulled over our eyes. Invaluable.’
— David Dimbleby