So what's in a number?

Tacloban in the Philippines is a city of approximately 220,000 people.

As anyone watching news bulletins around the world will know it was at the centre of the typhoon, Haiyan, which passed through in the past few days wreaking immense damage in the process.

Large numbers of homes and business properties have been destroyed. Many of its people have been forced to live on the street or in emergency accommodation and have nowhere else to go.

And many people have died. The original figure issued by the authorities in the city was approximately 10,000. Close on 5% of the population of the city.

Enter Benigno Aquino, President of the Philippines, to survey the disaster (and for once "disaster" is an appropriate word). According to the aforesaid gentleman with regard to the number of dead, the figure was "too much" and the actual figure would be closer to 2,000 to 2,500.  That would only be 1.25 to 1.5% of the local population.

Good news?

Well I know that politicians are fond of this "silver lining" approach (remember the old Margaret Thatcher comment about all the jobs they had created as UK unemployment topped 12%?), but this really touches rock bottom.

10 people dying in a disaster of this enormity would be a relief to the politicians maybe but still a loss to their families and friends. 2,000 dying is, by any calculation, an appalling loss of life and many people will have been damaged by the consequences of the storm.

And take the number of injured and the conditions to which many others have been reduced.

It will take years to put people's lives back together. Many will find the loss of their loved ones an enormous emotional burden for a very long time - ask any mother who has lost a child under any circumstances about the impact of such an event.

There is no "silver lining" in this situation, and merely flipping around a figure indicative of the great tragedy involved and replacing it with a smaller figure which hardly diminishes the nature of that tragedy is cynical in the extreme! But unfortunately typical of the political class with which we seem to be stuck worldwide!