http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-28500346

'Have you heard the rumours Billy was shagging the commander?'

'But the commander's a woman!'

I'm wondering if there isn't an element of stitching her up about this. Not to mention sexism; it's not that big of a story on initial inspection, first female commander or not.

carry on at sea ...

There are rules about 'fraternising' in the military, although they're less strict that they were. IIRC, it's generally done that couples don't get to serve on the same ship or in the same deployment. I think the RAF maybe a bit more flexible about married couples. It's still frowned upon for someone to start a relationship with someone who is of significantly lower rank than they are, you often end up with accusation of favouritism from the higher rank to the lower and there's the question of the misuse of authority, similar to the way academic staff in Universities aren't supposed to be in relationships with their students.

I'm not sure how she could be stitched up, at least not in the sense I'd use the phrase. if you're not supposed to sleep with your crew, don't sleep with your crew. It's not something you can do by accident, is it? There may be people taking advantage of the situation yes but (and there's nothing good about this, but it's true) if you're an officer you do need to play the political game, or at least be aware enough not to hand people who don't like you a loaded gun.

I know what you mean, and nobody should be having any sort of affair in that situation no matter how you look at it, but this is headline news. And that's just ridiculous as it stands at the moment. I seriously doubt we'd have this story if it was a male commander. Her being the first female commander is just a smokescreen IMO for a story about a 'fruity' blonde. The old elitest, sexist way still exists with the media. And elements of the forces will use it because they're not much different.