“Unpaid volunteers now used for key police jobs” (News, last week, page 10) misleadingly said the forces reporting the highest number of volunteers were Thames Valley with 70,459, Surrey with 32,000 and West Yorkshire with 19,432. These figures did not refer to individuals but to the hours worked by them. Apologies.
In early editions last week a caption to a photograph read: “Airmen of the US Eighth Air Force relax during a break from raids on Germany in 1942.” The picture clearly showed the men wearing soldiers’ uniforms. The US did not have a separate air force until after the Second World War; the men in the picture served with the US Eighth Army Air Force.
We have an affinity for or with something, not an affinity to something (“… their affinity to 1970s educational theory”, Leader, last week, page 40). “Attachment to” might have been a better expression.
Arcane corner: all peers were indeed eligible to vote in the most recent House of Lords’ hereditaries byelection (For the Record, last week, page 44) but it has been pointed out that when an hereditary peer from a party caucus dies, only peers from that caucus can vote.
Write to Stephen Pritchard, Readers’ Editor, the Observer, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU, tel 020 3353 4656 or email reader@observer.co.uk
