And then I ask myself if you have declared homosexuals in your midst what

And then I ask myself if you have declared homosexuals in your midst, what will that do to the trust and confidence of the people within that ship? And the answer I come to every time is that it will undermine the very trust and confidence on which a disciplined service fights – the esprit de corps,” he said.Sir Jock said the Royal Navy was “legally right” at the moment to discharge declared or discovered homosexuals.The MoD review follows scathing criticisms of Britain’s policy by a High Court judge in June. But the Chiefs of Staff are in no doubt that the policy should stand. Everyone in the Navy is committed to going to sea and therefore there is no question of it being acceptable ashore but not at sea.”I look then at the conditions at sea, where they are relatively cramped, they are crowded, it can be tough, it can be stressful. Very definitely no,” he told the Western Morning News in Plymouth. The fact other countries accepted homosexuals was not necessarily a yardstick by which the British forces should work, Sir Jock said.”We are looking right across the board at our policy during the next five months. STEPHEN WARD

Legal Affairs Correspondent
The First Sea Lord yesterday showed the strength of high-level hostility to gays in the armed forces when he pre-empted a policy review to say he would not allow them in the front line or in offices and the Army and RAF chiefs felt the same.Earlier this week the Ministry of Defence announced a review of the ban on gays and Westminster interpreted the move as a signal that Michael Portillo, the Secretary of State for Defence, is preparing to climb down at least partially in the face of a legal challenge to the ban by four dismissed servicemen and women.But Admiral Sir Jock Slater, the senior Navy officer, said: “The stand in one word is no We are talking declared homosexuals. The study, by a clinical nurse specialising in medicine for the elderly at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital, questioned current nursing practice and the safety of the tools being used in hospitals..

The first successful mercury thermometer was created in 1714 by Gabriel Fahrenheit and they eventually became commonplace in hospitals.One leading campaigner against their use, Dr Ivan Blumenthal, from the Royal Oldham Hospital near Manchester, has argued that there are high risks of breakage and poisoning, and of them spreading infection between patients because they are re-usable.”Everybody has become very conscious about mercury floating about, especially in neo-natal departments,” he said.”People feel that if we could use an alternative that was as accurate, why not switch?”Among the alternatives is the Tempadot, a plastic strip thermometer containing organic chemicals in various quantities which release a blue dye when they reach their different melting points, indicating a patient’s body temperature.Manufacturers of the Tempadot say it is just as accurate as its mercury predecessor – to within 0.1C – but it is yet to be officially tested.However, a recent study in Nursing Times found that disposable thermometers are more accurate, cheaper and quicker than mercury devices. NHS Supplies, the special health authority which provides goods and services for the NHS, says the number of mercury thermometers in use in hospitals almost halved during the past five years.
In 1990, 1.5 million thermometers were used nationwide, but this year the total is 800,000.High street chemists also report a demand for non-mercury thermometers, especially from parents buying instruments for their children, although the UK’s biggest chain, Boots, is not phasing out mercury-based ones.If the trend away from mercury thermometers continues, they could vanish from hospital wards within the next five or six years, marking the end of a 280-year era. MATTHEW BRACE

Mercury thermometers will become a thing of the past in hospitals within the next few years if trends favouring alternative devices continue. My daughter never wandered off, she never talked to strangers. He managed to get her, he will get anybody.”Meanwhile, a local newspaper has offered a pounds 10,000 reward in the hunt for the attacker..

I would not want any other mother in the world to go through what I have been through.”Her advice to other parents of small children was: “Keep a close eye on your kids. She is trying to put it to the back of her mind.”Speaking about the effect on the family, the mother said: “Every member of my family has really gone to pieces through this. My husband has taken it really badly.”She described the kidnapper as “an animal, a monster .. he is not human, he cannot be. She just plays with her all the time.”She seems to be thinking about it a lot but doesn’t want to talk about it. Later, on BBC Radio Newcastle, the mother said: “They are just playing a game, that is the way she is looking at it The police officer is her best friend at the moment. They brought it to me to identify but it wasn’t hers.”Asked about how her daughter was coping, she said: “She is very, very traumatised and will have to see a psychologist.”A woman detective has been with the child since trying to coax details from her about the kidnapper and what happened during the 17 hours she was missing.

She just said the man took her a long way away.”The man who did this must be someone’s son, he may be married. Someone must know who he is or at least have their suspicions. Please ring the police and help if you can.”The victim’s mother spoke of how the child had been playing outside when she disappeared. When she realised the girl was missing, she called the police about 8.15pm and a search was carried out on the estate.”Everybody started to panic, I thought she was dead They found a piece of clothing in the park. The police are doing all they can but they need help.”The child was seized near her home on the New Mills Estate, Newcastle upon Tyne, on Monday and was left in Bulmer Square, Darlington, Co Durham, the next day.The abduction has been linked to an incident in May when a five-year- old girl was grabbed in Newcastle and dumped in the same area of Darlington.The mother, speaking yesterday at a news conference at Newcastle’s West End police station, said of her daughter: “She has been able to give just the barest of details of what happened to her She is blacking out sections of it. The 25-year-old woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was speaking for the first time since her daughter was found after being abandoned 40 miles from home.
“This evil man took my little girl away, sexually assaulted her and left her to wander around in a strange town,” she said “He needs to be caught now. It would be improper to take Twelfth Night and advertise it as shock-horror.”.

The mother of a four-year-old girl who was kidnapped and sexually assaulted during a 17-hour ordeal yesterday appealed for information to help catch her child’s attacker. It warns titillatingly that the production contains nudity and some scenes may be unsuitable for children. Pictures of the principals in film-star pose are accompanied by a commendably brief summing up of the Faust story: “It’s Tempting; It’s Heavenly; It’s The Chance Of A Lifetime.”An RSC spokeswoman said: “Anything you can do to change people’s preconceived ideas about Shakespeare is worthwhile, but only if the production carries it. We wanted to show that this was a cool, hip show, a show that has to be seen by young people.”The marketing officer Chris Sare, who devised the Coriolanus poster, said he had the film Reservoir Dogs in mind with the bloody face. “The flyposting gave it an on-the-street feel, and our target audience for this production, students and young people, increased by 1,140 per cent But we wouldn’t do this for every production. The adaptation by Howard Brenton, directed by Michael Bogdanov, has a mock film poster with a 15 certificate next to the title, and the slogan “It’s a hell of a story”.