This morning Public Health England released its ‘alcohol evidence review’, the top line being this eye-catching statistic:

“people are drinking twice as much as they did 40 years ago”

This is the first statistic mentioned in the press release, it’s the finding Public Health England wanted to give the most prominence and feature on newspaper front pages tomorrow. Just one problem, it’s entirely bogus. Public Health England have this afternoon retracted the claim after admitting they got their sums wrong. A spokesman tells Guido that an “error” was made with their data, describing the mishap as “unfortunate“. Public Health England have issued the following clarification:

“people are drinking more than they did in the past”

Makes you wonder, what else are Public Health England getting wrong?