A MoD Press Office spokesman has this morning contacted the BNP news team to refute one of the stories we carried last week on our regional news pages.

Our London correspondent was contacted last week by an employee of Stansted Airport who claimed he had seen a US Air Force Troop Transport land at the airport on Thursday 16th and which was reportedly carrying the coffins of British service personnel recently killed in the Middle East (presumably Afghanistan). The coffins were believed to have been off-loaded and placed in refrigeration in one of the hangers.

The MOD categorically denied that this incident took place and furthermore told us that every British service personnel killed in the Iraq or Afghanistan conflicts is brought home in the usual ceremonial manner at Brize Norton in Oxfordshire.

We are happy to out the record straight and thank the MoD for clarifying the position.

Casualty figures

This is the same Press Office which only days ago denounced as untrue press reports that casualties among British troops in Afghanistan are around 50%. So who should we believe - the government or the media? A tough choice, because we all know they both lie through their teeth.

Fortunately, in this case, a simple examination of the statistics tells us all we need to know:

1) It is a known fact that, whereas during, for example, the Korean War, the ratio of dead to injured among British soldiers was one in ten, improved first aid, medivac and hospital treatment have changed the ratio these days to one dead for every twenty injured;

2) It was recently announced that a soldier serving a six month tour of duty on the front line in Afghanistan runs a one in thirty six chance of being killed.

For the sake of simplicity, let's call that a 1-in-40 chance of death. Now apply to that figure the ratio of injuries to deaths (20-to-1), and we see immediately that, statistically, that gives an individual soldier out there a one-in-two chance of being injured.

Here is an example to help one get one’s head around these ratios.

In a company of 200 men, as the MOD said itself 1 in 40 or 5 of that 200 will likely be killed. For every one dead there are 20 injured. So for 5 dead there are likely to be 100 men injured. 100 men out of the total company strength of 200 is 50%.

So it is without surprise that we hear from squaddies recently back from Afghanistan, and indeed still serving there, of the growing anger on the ground over the MoD and Government's refusal to acknowledge just how bad things have become.

We ask all readers to redouble their efforts to spread awareness of the real facts, for this is the only thing that will pressure the Brown regime into seeing sense and pulling our boys and girls out of a crazy foreign war that has got nothing to do with Britain or British interests.

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