There was quite a stir in the national newspapers following the suspension from duty of the first ever female commander of a Royal Navy warship who allegedly had an affair with one of her officers. Other than the obvious concerns over discipline and the morale of the rest of the crew I don’t see why anybody would be that bothered, let alone surprised.

Men and women working together away from home and for months at a time; is it really any wonder that it happened? After all boys will be boys and girls will be girls. Hasn’t it always been so in the navy? As Winston Churchill remarked, the Royal Navy was built on a tradition of “Rum, sodomy and the lash”! At least, this time, it wasn’t a case of the captain abusing the poor old cabin boy!

It seems to me that for as long as men and women work alongside one another affairs and sexual contact are as inevitable as a rainy day in Manchester. Perhaps the solution is to completely segregate the sexes and have ships for men and ships for women. Perhaps colour the ships differently, blue for boys and pink for girls! Maybe even blue and pink stripes for gays? Why not, it’s certainly a lot better than drab old grey!