Letter: Standards of lawyers, editors and Cabinet ministers

Sir: There are lies, damned lies and 'Mellormeters'. Your table (23 September) purports to show the rise to prominence in the quality press of Mr Mellor since the revelations of 19 July.

You report that he 'outstripped more senior cabinet colleagues'. This may be so if you are referring to his nocturnal activities, but the figure at the end of the article, his number of appearances in the nine weeks prior to 19 July, shows that he would have done so under normal circumstances. In prefixing this latter figure with the word 'just' you invite a conclusion that is unsupported by the evidence of your own work.

Such superficial interpretation of data in my job would be met with derision by my director and aspersions would again be cast on my mathematical abilities]

Yours faithfully,

JONATHAN M. LIPSCOMB

London, SW18

23 September