George MacDonald Fraser, author of the risque victoriana "Flashman" novels and scriptwriter of the James Bond movie "Octopussy", warns in a letter to the Telegraph of the dangers of placing women soldiers in the front line, a move that he says will "wreck the British army".

The 75 year-old writer, who fought with the 14th army in Burma, claims that "unfit" women would prove a fatal distraction to soldiers seeking to protect the "weaker vessel". "Has British manhood really so degenerated that men, at Westminister or elsewhere, would be content to sit at home while girls are bayoneted or blown up?" asks MacDonald Fraser.