Misusing statistics

Sometimes you can only laugh at the way statistics are misused. At The Monarchist, one contributor claims a recent survey showing that a large number of gay men would like to date Princes William or Harry proves that there are many homosexuals who support the monarchy. What a load of nonsense - I'm sure there's plenty of people who would want to date Kate Middleton, but that doesn't mean they support the monarchy.This is a blatant misuse of statistics.

The 2008 Legatum Prosperity Index is now online. According to Australians for Constitutional Monarchy's Professor David Flint, constitutional monarchies outperform republics. He forgets to mention that seven of the top ten on the list are republics:

1. Australia (monarchy)
2. Austria (republic)
3. Finland (republic)
4. Germany (republic)
5. Singapore (republic)
6. United States (republic)
7. Switzerland (republic)
8. Hong Kong (republic)*
9. Denmark (monarchy)
10. New Zealand (monarchy)

*If you count Hong Kong as a republic, which it sort of is - albeit only slightly more democratic than Singapore.

David Flint's claims are a blatant misuse of the statistics.