Some practical statistics

[chickenfeet]

Lord Stevens claims 3000 British based Muslims have been through Al Quaeda training camps.

Let's see:

There are 1.6 million Muslims in Britain, of which half, one assumes, are female and unlikely to attend AQ camps. So, 800,000 males.

At least a quarter of those must be too young to have had terrorist training so let's say 600,000 adult males.

So 1 in 200 adult British Muslim males have left the country for terrorist training?

I have my doubts.

Comments

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I guess it's what happens when one has been a consultant for twenty five years. testing the reasonableness of data becomes second nature. Perhaps it's the difference between consultants and accountants {snerk}. My employer once got my tax deduction wrong by a factor of three or so. I worked out that it was clearly wrong by approximation in ten seconds. It took the office accountant fifteen minutes to convince himself that I was right because he couldn't accept it until he had worked the correct answer out to the exact penny.

[tanuja.livejournal.com]

Perhaps it's the difference between consultants and accountants {snerk}.

To my utter shame, I have no response to this.... :oops: :)

The office accountant sounds like several people I have worked with. Fortunately, Treasury is much more, er, reasonable.