Q.

When is a 55.5% increase “almost double the amount”?

A. When it’s BBC London* reporting today on Camden Council’s planned increase in school dinner spending from 45p per head to 70p per head.

This is most likely straightforward incompetence rather than bias – but the tendency for journalists to hype and over-hype stories is ever present, particularly among younger journalists reporting on run-of-the-mill stories like this – but please, BBC London, next time you’re reporting on Camden’s school dinners, do pop into a maths class while you’re there!

Since I’m in a generous mood today, here’s a suggestion for genuinely revving up this story a bit – try contrasting Camden’s school dinner spending per head with Camden’s town hall canteen spending per head – might be interesting! Or, if you’re feeling even more righteous, how about contrasting school dinner spending per head with prison food spending per head – that’s an angle that’d be worth exploring further too.

* I don’t know if it’s a result of Camden’s schooling or not, but I note that BBC London appear, at long last, to have dropped their silly ‘BBC LDN‘ affectation. Either that or they’ve finally got the ‘O’ on their keyboard fixed!