IN your article, "Give us right to strike, demand angry police" (Echo, May 21), the second paragraph said: "The Police Federation of England and Wales said 86 per cent of its members want to lobby for the same industrial rights as other workers if the Government is not compelled to honour arbitration pay deals".

In a subsequent paragraph it said: "Turnout in England and Wales was 60,600 votes, or 43 per cent".

I am confused. If the voting turnout of the Police Federation was 43 per cent of its membership, then I assume that more than half the membership did not take the opportunity to vote. Therefore, 86 per cent of the federation's membership could not equal the 43 per cent of voting members.

Mathematics is not my strong point (I was nine when the Second World War broke out and evacuations meant that by the time I left in 1944, I had attended five schools) so I stand to be corrected.

As the old saying goes: "There are lies, damn lies and statistics".

Maybe my reading of the "statistics" is wrong, but I would welcome some explanation of the interpretation of the statistics.

Name supplied, Darlington.