FactCheck

With George Osborne rumoured to be unveiling plans for an “alcohol unit price control” in the 2012 Budget, FactCheck calls time on the row in the cabinet over boozed-up Britain. How bad are we as a nation? Will imposing a minimun price on booze make a difference to binge drinking?

The Labour leader said there are five people for every vacant job in Dartford, where the Howes family live. Was he right? And how does the competition measure up in the rest of the country? FactCheck investigates.

“The actual cash saving this year is nothing like £445. It’s £3.10, barely enough to buy you a pint of beer in a central London pub.”

“Some people will be antagonised by any discussion of the fact that spiralling unemployment is hitting black people the hardest”, Diane Abbott wrote in today’s Guardian. And rightly so. But some people will be further antagonised by the possibility that Britain’s first black female MP may have got her facts wrong. Has she? FactCheck investigates.

The firm might have expected its promise to create 20,000 jobs over the next two years to be enthusiastically endorsed – or at least, to borrow from its own slogan, to be embraced with the verdict “every little helps”. But few are prepared to take what Tesco says on trust. Do these figures strip out jobs lost? Are they full-time posts? Over to the team.

Can Ken Livingstone bring back the EMA? FactCheck gets out its red pen.

“Police pensions only cost the state about 25 per cent more than those of other public sector workers.”

As David Cameron himself rued today, it has been four weeks in row of NHS questions from Ed Miliband. Amid the bitter debate, both sides of the House have taunted each other – reeling off names of high profile support or opposition for the Bill and slinging out statistics at high speed. Well it’s time for a check up. Who’s behind the Bill, and who’s against it? FactCheck does a roll call.

“Confusion reigns, and despite repeated phone calls and several days to think about it, DWP has declined to clarify the situation.”

Stemming the flood of migration with the UK’s first “immigration cap” was a central pledge in the Conservative Party’s manifesto. They promised to cut immigration from hundreds of thousands, to tens of thousands by the next parliament. How are they doing? FactCheck investigates.

Despite the ring of alarm bells over frontline police numbers, David Cameron told the House of Commons that the thin blue line is actually getting fatter. Is he right? FactCheck investigates.

“Much like the French Foreign Legion, the scheme is “entirely voluntary” to enter, but there may be an element of compulsion later on if you decide to leave.”

“Mr Cameron’s right to defend the NHS’s achievements in maintaining high standards for waiting times and in other areas, but wrong, in many instances, to claim the credit for the current government.”

Youth unemployment sailed past the million mark last month with much furore, prompting the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to wade into the waters with some perspective. FactCheck takes a look at the findings.

“It makes a huge difference to patients that there are now more midwives working in the NHS than ever before”, said the Health Minister today. There might be record numbers of midwives, but the birth rate is soaring – so how much of a difference can it make? FactCheck investigates.