Iain Dale: Mickey Mouse Maths on Eurostar

Iain Dale has chosen the eve of the polls to bury another paddy, in this case apparently based on atrocious adding up. This was it:

New figures sneaked out by the Treasury today reveal that Gordon Brown’s staff have spent nearly half a million pounds on Eurostar trips in one year. The £463,455 bill for 2,750 tickets means return trips are costing the taxpayer around £337. Return tickets in standard class cost as little as £30.
The Treasury took five months to answer the question, and slipped it out this morning whilst attention is focused on the local elections.

There is a consensus emerging among commenters that there are some schoolboy errors from the word "means" onwards. The tickets are surely already returns? So the average price is around £168 NOT £337. Double counting. Iain has made the reverse error in the comparator price which is for a single, not for a return which is £60 or more.

This seems to add up to quadrupling the difference between a highly restricted and limited availability ticket at £60 and a more generally available and more flexible choice at £170. As railway pricing goes this difference is no great shakes. As one insider commented also civil servants do their best to be economical on travel.

As to the idea that this is being "buried" by elections and leadership successions? This Iain could be buried by a tedious routine statement from Ivan Lewis MP on who knows what. A non-story based on scandalously bad Tory maths.