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The media have gone along with politicians and diplomats in conveying a 'weird and wonderful' image of China that is totally at odds with the reality

"Statistics are the poetry of Latin America" was Frank Tannenbaum's discreet version of "there are lies, damn lies, and statistics." This is a widespread enough view, even now, when numbers are fashionable, and a fair number of my colleagues suggest any series will do to illustrate their well-conceived articles. A few skeptics refuse to go in for misplaced fashion. A Mexican economist, working in the statistics in the boondocks, said he was told to apply a correction coefficient to his numbers, to make them consistent with his boss's earlier reports. He quit, and became an essayist. An Argentine economist said that when his division head wanted to show growth, the investigators were sent to big firms; slumps were reported by surveying the output of small firms.

A commentator on LBC Radio last week has declared that whilst this is undoubtedly a 'Brexit election', it may also be regarded as a "lying election." As he explained, there is an increasing sense that though politicians have a credibility problem at the best of times, the volume and profligacy of promises being bandied about by each of the main parties is leading voters to wonder who can be believed.