I am glad that he has recognised the unfairness of the existing system

I am glad that he has recognised the unfairness of the existing system."Mr Maclennan is engaged in official talks with Robin Cook, Labour's policy supremo and a supporter of electoral reform, on the nature and timing of the referendum on changing the electoral system.Mr Blair in his lecture repeated his willingness to "work with all those of goodwill who believe in the need for political change".Andrew Marr, page 19. MICHAEL SHERIDAN Diplomatic Editor The most senior woman at the Foreign Office, Dame Pauline Neville-Jones, is to take a temporary post in the Bosnia peace implementation team before joining the corporate banking arm of NatWest in June.The head of the Diplomatic Service, Sir John Coles, today rejects "the insinuation" that her decision to leave the Foreign Office was due to sexual discrimination in the award of senior jobs. In a letter to The Independent Sir John says that appointments are made on merit alone, although he concedes that he wants to see "a better balance" between men and women in the Foreign Office.Dame Pauline, 56, had been considering her future while on leave after stepping down as Political Director of the Foreign Office. She is said to have turned down the job of ambassador to Bonn after her preferred post, ambassador to Paris, was given to Michael Jay, a European policy specialist. Plans to tailor a senior foreign policy position for her in the Cabinet Office also failed to meet with her agreement.She will now become a special adviser until the end of June to Carl Bildt, the High Representative overseeing the civilian international effort to enforce the Bosnia peace agreement. Then she will take up a post as managing director with NatWest Markets.Senior diplomats claim that personalitieslay behind this falling-out.

There is no doubt, however, that the public disillusion of the highest- flying woman in the Foreign Office has caused embarrassment at the top. Officials point out that the Foreign Office has introduced career breaks following maternity leave, flexi- and part-time working, together with jobsharing schemes to encourage women to stay in the service. But there are only seven women ambassadors and no woman has yet reached a "grade one" top job.. Soldiers' farewell: Comrades carrying the coffin of Trooper Andrew Ovington, 25, through the snow into St Mary the Virgin church in Easington in Co Durham yesterday. Trooper Ovington was one of the three soldiers killed last week when their armoured vehicle hit a mine during peacekeeping duties in Bosnia.

The funeral of Trooper John Kelly, 21, who was also killed in the incident on 28 January, was 10 miles away yesterday in the Independent Methodist Church at Silksworth, Tyne and Wear. In Easington, a Light Dragoons regimental bearer party carried the coffin into the church where he and his widow Tracy were married just three years ago, a few months before he joined the Army. Tracy, Andrew's parents, Joan and Tom, brothers Stephen, Graham and Tony, and his sister, Janet, led 150 mourners as they slowly followed the bearer party to the hilltop church.After the service the cortege moved on to Easington Colliery cemetery where a Royal Scots Dragoon Guard piper played a lament and there was a final salute from a firing party.At Silksworth, about 300 mourners of Trooper Kelly were led by his father, Dennis, stepmother Amanda, mother Ann and stepfather Colin Swain, to the church and a hall where the service was relayed. The service was followed by cremation at Sunderland.Photograph: Raoul Dixon. The National Lottery and the Scott report "both expose a moral coarseness on the part of the government", according to one of the members of high-level Christian delegation which yesterday visited Mrs Virginia Bottomley to ask for the regulations surrounding Instants to be tightened up, writes Andrew Brown. The Rev John Kennedy, of the Methodist Church's Division of Social Responsibility, said that he was mostly concerned with the growth of Instants. "This is a gambling industry worth pounds 1.5bn a year, created by the government, from which Camelot have told us that they make no profit at all." The government, he said, was irresponsible not to fund research into the effects of Instants. Mr Kennedy also claimed that the lottery had led to the nationalisation of charity. "The money passes through the lottery and it is the Government which decides which charities benefit."The churches want curbs on the sale of Instants, which they regard as addictive.

They want the age limit raised to 18 and a curb on the issue of new licenses to sell the scratch card They also want research into the effects of Instants.. IAN MACKINNON Freezing temperatures across most of Britain yesterday made snow clearance from countless blocked roads slow going as forecasters warned of high winds and further falls over the next two days. New snow in some parts added to the chaos that saw the emergency services stretched to the point where the Army had to be called in to bring help to hospitals and the elderly in one part of Scotland.Torrential rain across the south of England brought its own problems with the emphasis expected to switch to the extremely stormy conditions followed by snow tonight and tomorrow.The coldest place in Britain was at Madley, in Hereford and Worcester, where temperatures dropped to minus 11.3C , ensuring the 15cm of snow which had fallen had no chance of melting.Two people died when their vehicles collided on black ice on the A15 at Waddingham near Lincoln, closing the road for part of the day while police cleared the wreckage. Another man died after his BMW overturned in treacherous weather conditions on the A3 near Petersfield, Hants, on Tuesday night.Electricity company officials in Wales warned against going near fallen power lines after a 16-year-old boy, received a shock while playing in a field near Merthyr Tydfil, Mid Glamorgan.Around 5,000 homes in the region were blacked out for much of the day, 3,300 of them in rural West Wales where snow-blocked roads are hampering the repair operation.Officials from the Brecon Beacons National Park placed their four-wheel drive vehicles at the disposal of Powys County Council's social services department to enable staff to reach the elderly or disabled.In Scotland, where the snow falls during the day were heaviest, 28 soldiers from the 1st Battalion The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders with six four-wheel drive vehicles were sent to take care workers to the homes of the elderly and help out in hospitals at Dumfries.Three RAF helicopters were drafted in from Northern Ireland to augment the regular search and rescue aircraft and joined reconnaissance flights looking for people trapped in their homes.Their main task was to identify stranded people in rural areas, needing help but with no phone lines.Police urged them to lay out a signal that would be visible from the air, a large V for urgent help and an X for urgent medical help.While the south-bound carriageway of the A74 remained officially closed convoys of lorries, some which had been stranded for 36 hours, were led southwards by police.. Stanislaus, a 27-year-old defender, was caught out after a routine drugs test following a match against Barnet in November.

He now faces a huge battle to relaunch his career after the unanimous decision to sack him by the Orient board. Barry Hearn, the Orient chairman, said he felt that the one-year ban was a lenient one and that the board had no alternative to dismissal in order to preserve the good name of Orient and of football in general.Hearn, reading from a prepared statement from the Orient board after a meeting at the ground yesterday morning, said: "At a meeting earlier today the board of Leyton Orient voted unanimously to terminate Roger Stanislaus's contract with immediate effect."In considering all the factors we felt the good name of Leyton Orient as the Littlewoods Community Club of the Year and the very high percentage of young supporters we attract were two of the overriding reasons."In addition the fact that Roger's version of events that led to him testing positive for cocaine was heavily contradicted by expert medical testimony, has, in our opinion, left the club with no possible alternative.''Lucas Radebe and Phil Masinga, the Leeds United players, were yesterday carpeted by their manager Howard Wilkinson for their late return to Elland Road from African Nations' Cup duty.Wilkinson was angry that the pair, who helped South Africa win the competition, reported 24 hours later than scheduled. "I am sure that in a few years' time the English championship will be the best in the world. I also speak a little English."Scala said that Asprilla was "completely injury-free". He added: "Maybe Newcastle wanted to save something on the price we initially agreed."Parma's doctor, Luca Montagna, said Asprilla had cartilage surgery in 1991 "Since then, he has always played brilliantly We haven't even checked him over recently There was no need to.".