The figure does deserve notice. Forty-seven million is more - a lot more than the entire population of Scandinavia, or about the population of England.

When you also take into account that nearly one per cent of the population in the US is in prison (in "The Land of the Free") you get to realise that not everything is as bad in Europe as we are sometimes led to believe.

Both statistics are a disgrace to any "civilised" society.