True facts and figures

IN her item on behaviour and discipline in schools, Grace Hammond (Yorkshire Post, July 18) quotes the child psychologist Teresa Bliss as saying that “if 1,000 students are being suspended each day, as a percentage of the 8.9 million educated in England and Wales, that’s less than 0.001 per cent of all students”.

Wrong! It is 11 times (1,100 per cent) greater than that. It is actually 0.011 per cent. Not knowing how, or by whom, the figure was calculated or typed, it seems to be a regular occurrence nowadays for small percentages to be wrongly calculated, and quoted, by people in responsible positions that make public statements on statistics.

River resource

From: John Goodman, King Tree Avenue, Cottingham.

I READ with interest Bob Dales’ article (Yorkshire Post, July 18) extolling the need to increase water storage, and questioning the policies of the environment Agency in its flood prevention schemes. Bob, without realising it, was making the case for a Humber Barrier. Turning the Humber into a freshwater lake, capable by varying its surface level of flood reduction in the winter and an irrigation source in the summer, gives a huge potential resource. The tidal surge level in the Humber has been steadily increasing and it is only a matter of time before a major flood occurs. Let’s be “ahead of the game” and build now for the future.

Police failings

From: Peter R Hyde, Driffield, East Yorkshire.

AS a former police officer, I am totally and utterly disgusted at the action of certain former officers of the West Yorkshire Police (Yorkshire Post, July 22). What kind of woman officer allows a serial criminal to indulge in sex with her? She, as a well paid police officer, can have no excuse for her behaviour. Those former officers involved in the mid 1990s should be arrested and put before a court immediately and made to apologise publicly.