The trial of Lucy Letby has shocked British statisticians
And shown that many Britons are woefully ignorant of statistics
It was “feeble”. It was “very unsatisfactory”. It was, in short, “terrible”. If you wish to annoy a statistician, ask them about the trial of Lucy Letby, a British nurse. Statisticians will, typically, take no view whatsoever on the guilt or otherwise of Ms Letby, who in August 2023 was found guilty of murdering seven very young babies in a hospital near Liverpool between 2015 and 2016, and given 15 life sentences without the chance of parole.
Explore more
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Two cultures”
Britain August 24th 2024
- The trial of Lucy Letby has shocked British statisticians
- Mike Lynch was Britain’s first software billionaire
- Britain’s government pulls the plug on a superfast computer
- The tricky politics of choosing Oxford’s next chancellor
- Youth clubs in Britain have been vanishing
- Britain’s boom in public inquiries into past disasters
Discover more
Are British voters as clueless as Labour’s intelligentsia thinks?
How the idea of false consciousness conquered the governing party
The best British companies to work for to get ahead
A new ranking of firms by pay, promotions and hiring practices
How the best British employers find and promote their staff
No degree? Some employers care much less than others
A tiny island fights the scourge of plastic on the beach
A Northern Irish experiment in recycling
A sticking-plaster policy for Britain’s strained courts
Magistrates get more power. Will they get punch-drunk on it?