Writer at the Full Fact, writing on British politics, policy, health and statistics. Previously in The Sunday Times, Independent, Nautilus and more. Contact: abbas.panjwani@hotmail.com
Lockdown sceptics rely on skewing what’s considered ‘normal’
Comment piece on how lockdown sceptics twist statistics to support their narrative.
‘Why would we suddenly go to them and lie?’: How councils and communities are working together to fight vaccine misinformation
In January, 60 councils across England were given money by the government to help spread Covid-19 vaccine advice through trusted “Community Champions”. We talked to some of them about what they’ve been doing, what’s been working, and the challenges ahead.
Blaming local lockdowns on Muslims is irrational at best and racist at worst
Comment piece exploring why it's important to be open when talking about why Covid hotspots are so often located in Muslim-majority areas.
PPE: What actually happened during the first wave?
FOI-led investigative piece which reveals how the government used poor quality data to guide decisions on PPE supply during the first wave.
A doctor claims his contract was terminated after talking about PPE shortages to the press
Exclusive with a doctor who was sacked for speaking out about PPE shortages.
Why Doing Good Makes It Easier to Be Bad
A series of scandals in early 2018 rocked the UK charity sector. But can the psychological concept of moral licensing explain why altruistic people are actually more likely to misbehave?
The facts behind Labour and Conservative Facebook ads in this election
Analysis of the Conservative and Labour ad campaigns during the 2019 election.
Employment: Can you trust employment statistics?
Series on common myths about employment statistics and how almost all are flawed.
There almost certainly weren’t a million people on the People’s Vote march
Debunking claims by the People's Vote campaign about attendance during their marches.
What can Love Island tell us about survey design?
It’s day 50 on Love Island. We’re reaching the tail end of the hit ITV2 show where toned, Instagramming twenty-somethings are stuck in a Majorcan villa and told to find love or face being voted out by the public, missing out on the £50,000 prize.
Not a typical place to look for lessons in survey design, but then, to quote the Grateful Dead, once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right.
To set the scene, the boys are taking it in turns to be hooked...
Does the UK have the poorest regions in northern Europe?
In 2016, the UK had six of the 10 regions with the lowest GDP per person, from a group of nearby countries. This isn’t a good measure of how rich or poor people in those regions are.
Have house prices risen because of immigrants?
It’s impossible to say for definite. Government analysis suggests immigration has pushed English house prices up by 20% but says it’s not meant to be a complete answer, and should be used with caution. There is no consensus across other research.
Novara Media pulls video wrongly using clip from 2012 strike in report on Catalonia independence vote violence
Novara Media has pulled a misleading video report about police brutality during the Catalonia referendum after Press Gazette approached its editor for comment about the error.
The interview with ex BBC journalist Paul Mason was set to footage of police violence against independence protesters, but included clips from 2012 showing Catalan police beating civilians during a general strike.
Novara Media editor Aaron Bastani said they were informed of the “honest mistake” around ten days ago. The ...
Mayors of Hackney: The fascinating stories hidden in a corridor of old photos at the town hall
The refurbished town hall contains a corridor hung with more than a hundred photographs. They show Hackney’s mayors and speakers since 1900. Guided by the head of the modern-day mayor’s office Abbas Panjwani hears some of the best – and strangest – stories that lie behind Hackney’s civic chains.
Hanging in a first floor corridor in Hackney Town Hall is the photograph of a mayor, alongside his esteemed predecessors and successors.
Suited and spectacled in black and white, there is nothing imme...
No Ball Games: Removing Banksy’s work from the street defeats the point
Last week another one of Banksy’s works entitled 'No Ball Games', was removed from the streets of Harringey. The Sincura Group, also behind the sale of Banksy’s 'Slave Labour' last month, are the company responsible for this act of “salvage” intend to restore the work, which has been subject to vandalism and then donate the profits of the following sale to Step by Step, a local charity for disabled children.