Now the Liberal Democrats are urging their MPs and candidates to do it too

Now the Liberal Democrats are urging their MPs and candidates to do it too - get "made over"by an image consultant at next week's party conference. "Be aware that 55 per cent of the impression you make on someone is based on your appearance, 38 per cent depends upon your voice and only 7 per cent actually depends upon what you say," the invitation from the candidates training team to a Color Me Beautiful presentation revealingly warns. A number of Liberal Democrat MPs have already gone for the treatment, including Paddy Ashdown, the party leader. Margaret Thatcher did it; the Labour front bench did it. Labour MPs will seek to tighten the rules when a Commons select committee meets in October to thrash out how to implement the Nolan report..Ministers who have taken City jobsNorman Lamont, former Chancellor: non-executive director merchant bank NM Rothschild. Also of First Philippine Investment Trust, Taiwan Investment Trust.Lord Lawson of Blaby, former Chancellor: non-executive director of Barclays Bank, chairman of Central European Trust.Lord Parkinson, former Trade and Industry Secretary, Transport Secretary and party chairman: Dartford River Crossing, Midland Expressway, chairman Usborne, Jarvis Harpenden.Sir Norman Fowler, former Transport Secretary, Employment Secretary and party chairman: non-executive director National Freight Corporation.Lord Wakeham, former Energy Secretary: non-executive director of NM Rothschild.George Younger, former Defence Secretary: chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland.Francis Maude, former Financial Secretary to the Treasury: joined US investment bank Salomon Brothers.Kenneth Baker, former Education Secretary and Tory Party chairman: director Hanson, Torrey Investments, Videotron Holdings, Bell Cablemedia.Lord Tebbit, former Trade and Industry Secretary and party chairman: director of BT, BET and Sears Holdings.Lord Walker of Worcester, former Energy Secretary: non-executive director of British Gas.Lord Howe of Aberavon, former Chancellor and Foreign Secretary: director Glaxo, BICC.John MacGregor, former Transport Secretary: non-executive deputy chairman of merchant bank Hill Samuel.. Accusing him of sleaze will prick the bubble of Labour's campaign," said a senior Tory source.The NatWest Group chairman, Lord Alexander, said: "We are delighted to welcome an international statesman of Douglas's stature to our board."Downing Street said the Prime Minister was "obviously aware" of the appointment.

"Lord Carlisle has commented that my appointment appears to meet fully the likely criteria by which any application from ministers will be judged. He feels sure the committee would have advised me that it was quite proper to accept the appointment subject only to the three-month waiting period proposed by Lord Nolan," Mr Hurd said.But Alistair Darling, the Labour's City spokesman, said Mr Hurd should have waited at least two years, the maximum recommended by Lord Nolan. "He has been involved in the highest level of decision making. He has been a senior member of the Cabinet for over a decade. The public want to see a decent gap between ministers leaving the Cabinet and entering the boardroom," Mr Darling said.Accusing him of demeaning his former office, Brian Wilson, the Labour spokesman on trade said: "There is a shamelessness about the desperation of ex-ministers cashing in on their public office which the electorate finds highly offensive."Mr Hurd's supporters said last night that it would be unfair to expect the former Foreign Secretary, a part-time novelist, to cool his heels for two years "He is the most well- respected politician in the country. He will join NatWest for an undisclosed sum and will also become deputy chairman of the group's investment bank NatWest Markets.Defending his decision, Mr Hurd, 65, said he had been advised by Lord Carlisle, chairman of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments for civil servants, to wait three months before taking up the appointment. Mr Hurd's appointment, coming days after Richard Needham, another minister, announced he was in line for three directorships, rekindled Labour demands for tougher rules on ministers taking posts in the private sector. A Labour front bench spokesman said Mr Hurd should have been forced to wait two years before taking up his post, instead of three months, the limit recommended by Lord Nolan's committee on standards in public life.Mr Hurd stepped down from his pounds 67,819 Cabinet post in July to become a backbencher drawing a Commons salary of pounds 33,189.

Labour last night accused Douglas Hurd, the former Foreign Secretary, of demeaning his office after he announced he is to take up a directorship on the main board of the banking group NatWest. "Certainly it is not a risk that one would recommend to one's friends."Robin Gorna, of the Terrence Higgins Trust aids charity, said that it would be "extremely unusual" for a woman to infect a man in a one-night stand, but it was not impossible "Condoms should always be worn," she said.. It also increases if the man is circumcised.Most of the research on the transmission of the HIV virus has been carried out in Europe and the United States into "discordant couples", where only one partner is infected initially but there is continued contact.The threat from a one-night stand is much more difficult to calculate."There are cases of people who appear to have been infected on a single contact," the health expert said. The HIV virus is particularly infectious in the first three or six months after being contracted and in the late stages when the body's immune system is breaking down - although external signs of the disease are not necessarily present.The risk is higher if there is any other sexually transmitted disease or if there is any "trauma" during sex, for example if blood is drawn.

However, a woman may contract infection across the whole of the cervix. Furthermore, semen may be left in the vagina."It's pure biology," the expert said. "There's more surface area there for the woman than for the male.The risk of male-to-female transmission is thought to be at least twice as high as vice versa, but some studies have suggested that it might be as much as 20 times greater.However, other factors also come into play. That it is much harder to contract HIV infection from a woman than from a man is clear The reasons why are not, writes Louise Jury "It isn't fully understood.