Fiddling Digits

Remarkably enough, the party that brought us the chancellorships of George Osborne, Kwasi Kwarteng, Nadhim Zahawi and Fishy Rishi seems to be having trouble with its figures. The Conservatives' conference hymnal, a hundred-page screed touted as a precise diagnosis of the country's problems, cites the Climate Change Committee estimate for the cost of net zero at twice the actual number. Apparently someone double-counted a spreadsheet entry, perhaps under the impression that they were filing an expenses claim or estimating the daily income of an asylum seeker. Doubtless it was the kind of honest mistake that can happen even in such intellectually rigorous environments as the Conservative Party; and besides, in those exalted realms the climate is hardly a major issue.