There are lies, damned lies, and then there are, of course, statistics. A recent press release from an insurer has drawn a certain amount of ire from commentators for extrapolating up a statistic from research on people fiddling their expenses. See the Guardian’s comment:  http://bit.ly/JzMFZb

It’s tempting to try and draw out some big numbers from this type of research, but as ever it comes down to your gut feel and common sense: if you think it’s stretching the integrity of the research then journalists will almost certainly come to a similar conclusion and you could find the whole thing back firing.