In your reporting on the cut in the North Yorkshire police budget, it is surprising there is no mention of the fact that the £10 million annual cut is less than the daily British expenditure on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The chief constable tells us what harmful effect the cuts will have on his force's ability to provide the service they wish to provide and which they know the public wants.

We can be certain that we will not be told by the commanders of the British forces in Iraq and Afghanistan whether the budget they are given to spend will achieve any military or social purpose whatsoever.

Only when they retire do they tell us that we are part of the problem in those countries.

It would be instructive if, in the course of your Fund Our Force campaign, you asked the MPs who gave you messages of support, to state whether they feel that the cost of a day's interfering in the affairs of Iraq and Afghanistan is worth more to the people of North Yorkshire than £10 million added to the North Yorksshire's police budget; and if so, why.

Maurice Vassie, Deighton, York.