IDG Contributor Network: Lies, damn lies, and statistics: How to take something positive from the UK’s EU referendum campaign

The recent referendum campaign in the UK reminded me of a familiar refrain thrown at data analysts like myself: “lies, damn lies, and statistics.”

The modern take, as seen in the campaign, was led by Leave campaigner Michael Gove whose main response to expert economic arguments was “people in this country have had enough of experts.”

The Leave campaign did not debate maturely with data-driven opinions. Instead of debating the economic opinions of the IMF, the Bank of England, and many other independent organizations, they were dismissed without constructive debate.

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