News

Downwardly mobile?

By Sam Ashworth-Hayes • 1 min

'More people are moving down, rather than up, the social ladder as the number of middle-class managerial and professional jobs shrinks' — The Guardian This is how most of this … Read

Economy, Business & Finance

What you need to know about the Treasury's tax statement

By Sam Ashworth-Hayes • 3 mins

The treasury says that mailing out individual statements this week telling taxpayers what their money is being spent on is an act of transparency. But are the letters really that clear? Read

The only way is Essex? Actually, there's another way.

By Full Fact Team • 1 min

Sometimes the way statisticians see things can be quite different to the way ordinary people do. During this week's Prime Minister's Questions MP Sir Bob Russell said: "More people live … Read

Bad Graphs: Is this graph doing well or badly?

By Sam Ashworth-Hayes • 1 min

Take a look at the Y axis. It's easy to be misled by the scale. The graph from the website May2015.com is using a logarithmic scale: the Y axis progresses … Read

What the UK already pays to the EU

By Amy Sippitt • 1 min

The Prime Minister has reportedly called for emergency talks to discuss an additional £1.7 billion payment the UK has been told it has to pay into the European Union budget. … Read

Education

Examining today's GCSE results: what's behind the drop?

By Joseph O’Leary • 1 min

On the face of it, today's GCSE results figures are alarming: the proportion of pupils getting five A*-C grades, including English and Maths, fell from 59.2% last year to 52.6% … Read

Ask Full Fact: are 1400 firms responsible for half of the world's R&D?

By Sam Ashworth-Hayes • 1 min

Via Twitter: "Liam Byrne at #spru says something like half of global (presumably biz) R&D is in the hands of 1400 companies. Is this true?" Liam Byrne has used this … Read

71% of 16- and 17-year-olds voted 'yes'—based on 14 responses

By Jenny Allan • 1 min

Various media sources and Twitter users have today reported on the results of a poll by Lord Ashcroft, which showed that 71% of 16- and 17-year-old respondents said they voted … Read

UK party leaders pledge new powers for Scotland if it votes No. But what could they be?

By Hugh Porter • 1 min

David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg have signed a joint declaration — carried on the front page of today's Daily Record — guaranteeing "extensive" new powers to the Scottish … Read

Referendum Live Q and A

By Full Fact Team • 7 mins

12.50: That wraps it up for Full Fact's first ever live Q&A. Thanks for all your questions and apologies if we didn't have time to answer yours. And just to … Read