Office of National Statistics To Be Independent

Interesting manoeuvre from Gordon Brown, announcing that (at long last) the Office for National Statistics is to become independent of government. It's always popular for pundits and politicians alike to proclaim that the Stats Office is biased when figures come out that don't support their pet theories, but this might help head all of that off.

Mind you, Vincent Cable then went on to say that 'independent' statisticians need to be appointed, which implies that he thinks that the current employees are irretrievably tainted by Labour bias. It will also be interesting to see what the Conservatives do when they get back into power. George Osborne has welcomed the move (to an extent), by the old political trick of claiming that it only happened because he advised the Chancellor to do it. He also wants the Audit Commission to go independent as well, which is a pretty sensible idea.

Not much in the way of graduate job news there, but it's an important labour market information story. One of the best bits of the ONS is the Neighbourhood Survey, which is always well worth looking at if you want to see how your street compares with your neighbours on things like crime rate and school achievement.