The results will intensify concern over access to primary health care out of hours. Ministers have already admitted the standard of out of hours care is not good Mbt  enough.

Under controversial NHS rules, GP surgeries are not responsible for out of hours care, which is often provided by locums working for private companies.

More than 1 million people responded to the Department of Health survey about GP services for 2009/10. The  mbt sale  results have been seen by the Daily Telegraph.

A total of 369,620 – some 35 per cent – said they did not know how to contact the local out-of-hours service in their area.

The survey showed large variations in patients’ knowledge of out-of-hours services, with a majority in some areas unaware of how to find a doctor.

In Hammersmith and Fulham in MBT Shoe  London, 52 per cent did not know how to find a doctor after hours. Several other London areas showed a majority unable to find a doctor.

The survey also found that a significant number of patients were not happy with the service they received out of hours.

While 65 per cent said their care was good or very good. But 13 per cent rated their treatment as poor or very discount Mbt shoes  poor. Another 17 per cent said care was neither good nor poor.

Of those people responding who had used an out of hours service, 63 per cent said the service had been quick enough, but 29 per cent said the doctor took too long to respond.

The latest GP survey results were placed in the House of Commons library last week while MPs were away from Westminster for the half-term recess.

Nine million patients use GP services outside normal hours every year, and there are growing doubts about the care they are receiving.

Under a new contract introduced in 2004, GPs are no longer responsible for out of hours services.

Many health authorities hire  Mbt shoes  private firms to provide cover, but those arrangements are facing growing criticism since they can leave hundreds of thousands of people with only a handful of doctors working out of office hours.

Earlier this month, a coroner found that “systemic failings” in the out of hours care system led to the death of a Cambridgeshire pensioner at the hands of an “incompetent” German locum.

An official government report into out of hours services also found widespread failings, a lax approach to interviews, misunderstandings about language testing responsibilities and patchy monitoring of quality of services.

The Conservatives have said they would make GPs “collectively responsible” for commissioning out-of-hours services once again. However, the British Medical  Mbt shoes Association is likely to resist any change in the GP contract.

Among the 35 or so luminous Mbt shoes 

 paintings that survive by 17th century Dutch artist Jan Vermeer, six of the best-known take as their subject a young woman reading a love letter.

Sometimes she is alone, sometimes a female servant hovers discreetly at her shoulder. In some she is engrossed in reading, in others she is absorbed in composing a letter herself.

Where the maid is poised to ghd straighteners  

 carry the completed missive to its destination, she holds the precious page, folded and sealed with wax, against her bodice, the name of its intended recipient concealed from us.

How do we know these are love letters? Well, to begin with, the young woman is to all intents and purposes alone, in a period when decorum required that when a single woman received a written communication a parent or relative ought to be present. Often a letter intended for a daughter would be enclosed within one addressed to her father or mother, respectfully requesting that it be passed to her.

Usually the young woman concerned  Mbt  

would then have read her letter aloud. So here we have a young woman reading a message which has apparently been delivered directly to her by a personal maid, and is pored over unsupervised.

Erotic intensity

This helps to explain why in each of these paintings the expression on the young woman’s face lies somewhere between the complicit and the furtive. Besides, the paintings are atmospherically infused ghd hair straighteners    with an aura of delicious secrecy. The light flooding through a half-open window illuminates her face, which is filled with barely-disguised anticipation. Something illicit is going on here, that is for sure.

Fiction of the 17th and 18th Centuries, often uses the dramatic possibilities offered by covert exchanges of letters to discount Mbt shoes  heighten erotic intensity. In Eliza Haywood’s popular amatory novel Love in Excess, published in 1720, handwriting is the clue that gives away the lover’s identity, threatening the reputation of the sender.

The devastatingly attractive Count D’elmont, in some confusion because he is simultaneously being pursued by two desirable young women, returns the wrong love letter to his rejected sweetheart Amena. She recognizes the handwriting as that of her best friend, thereby discovering to her dismay that her trusted confidante is in fact her secret rival.

Samuel Richardson’s 18th-century epistolary novels Pamela and Clarissa are both couched in the form of intricate exchanges of intimate letters, in which passions and betrayals are candidly revealed, to the delight or dismay of the letters’ recipients.

Closer to our own day, the plot of Edgar Allen Poe’s short story, The Purloined Letter, turns on the detective Dupin’s recognising the handwriting on a fragment of a compromising letter stolen from a lady of Royal status.

An obliging letter

In his textbook, On the Education of boys, the 16th-century pedagogue Erasmus of Rotterdam stresses how important it is that those in high places should be able to write a good legible hand themselves, rather than relying on a secretary:

“Recognition of the handwriting Ghd    can add a note of conviction, or at any rate an element of pleasure, to a letter [he writes]. One should remember that the apostle Paul sent his Letter to the Galatians entirely in his own handwriting.

When we get letters in their own hand from friends and fellow-scholars, how we welcome them and seem to be listening to their very voices and to be looking at them face to face.”

Hand-written letters are harder to counterfeit. Erasmus’s Treatise on Letter Writing, which went through numerous editions in Latin and the vernaculars after its first publication in the early 1520s, defines a familiar letter as “a kind of mutual exchange of speech between absent friends”.

Starting with simple instructions on the formal Latin ways of beginning and ending a letter, he goes on to provide lists of phrases to be used in writing letters of all types, from a “friendly consolation with a rebuke” to “a letter of invective”, “an obliging letter” or a “letter of entreaty”.

Few of us can still find time to write discount Mbt shoes    these kinds of carefully crafted familiar letters nowadays. The finer points of epistolary exchange are no longer observed. And the only attempt I have made to dissemble my own handwriting recently was on the Valentine’s Day card I sent my husband last weekend.

Yet the situation remains very much as it was four centuries ago when it comes to interception and inadvertent disclosure of confidential correspondence. Now as then, reputations are wrecked by a single indiscreet communication which has fallen into the wrong hands being circulated and broadcast to a wider public.

Electronic subterfuge

Except that nowadays, amorous liaisons are more likely to be betrayed by emails and text messages than by purloined letters.

Golfer Tiger Woods is just one imprudent husband whose infidelity was discovered when his wife read passionate text messages to another woman on his mobile phone. Footballer Ashley Cole allegedly “bombarded a pretty secretary with nude photos and raunchy text messages” in 2008, sending “hundreds of texts over a two-month period”. Now these have been passed to a tabloid newspaper, and he too has some explaining to do to his wife.

Our 18th-century amorous fiction-writer Eliza Haywood would have relished the way in which intimate exchanges of electronic messages, conducted with all the careful subterfuge Vermeer’s young women used to conceal their love letters, once suddenly disclosed, turn amatory worlds upside-down.

There are, however, some contexts in which real letters, set out in the way people used to be taught to do at school, are still sent and received. These are the ones written by lawyers acting on a client’s behalf, and generally dispatched to other lawyers acting for another client.

Here again the electronic age makes it harder than ever before to keep the most sensitive of letters confidential. Although lawyer’s communications continue to be composed on paper, they then tend to be scanned, and dispatched electronically. It is a simple matter for such a letter to be circulated in multiple copies at the click of a mouse.

Virtually indestructible

Earlier this month, we learned that Lord Neuberger’s ruling in the Binyam Mohamed case had been delivered with a crucial paragraph deleted, after a last-minute intervention by a top lawyer representing the government. Having read the draft judgment (which was sent out electronically, but  ghd straighteners encrypted), the QC “protested over the strength of a judge’s ‘exceptionally damaging’ criticism of the British security service”, and Lord Neuberger was persuaded to modify his ruling. The following day, the letter sent by Jonathan Sumption QC to Lord Neuberger, could be viewed in its entirety on a reputable newspaper’s website.

Both the deletion and the leaked letter caused a furore among the participants in the legal action. Those acting for Binyam Mohamed deplored the alteration to Lord Neuberger’s ruling; those acting for the government demanded and got an apology from the QC who had released the letter to the press. No doubt more under-cover documents will emerge before the matter is settled, but of one thing I personally feel sure. I prefer to live in a country whose judiciary generally supports our right of free access to information, rather than one which would have kept the entire matter tidily under wraps.

Letters used to be considered a genre in themselves, a literary form. Intellectuals and artists corresponded with one another in the hope or expectation that their letters might be preserved for posterity, and would one day appear in print. Today, by contrast, we treat electronic communications – emails and texts – as the most fleeting and ephemeral of things, barely worth dignifying with our attention with regard to punctuation, spelling or grammar.

Yet these messages are virtually indestructible, lingering on back-up discs and in electronic archives long after we have forgotten we ever wrote them. These are the fatal exchanges that may eventually come home to haunt us, months and years after they were sent.

In the 17th century when letter-writing was part of everybody’s education and their composition a matter of pride, their survival was a matter of chance. As such they provide an erratic window into the past. But now, when we hardly give a second thought to how we express ourselves in an email or text, we can never be sure that that missive will not eventually be retrieved and closely scrutinised in the public domain. Caveat scripter – writer beware.

Ministers are facing further pressure over plans to provide free personal care for the most vulnerable elderly people in England.

More than 70 councillors who lead social care provision across England have written to the Times describing the Mbt  plan as ill-conceived.

Gordon Brown made the pledge a key part of his election strategy.

But local authorities say finding an extra £250m from their budgets will mean cuts in other services.

The vast majority of councils represented on the list Mbt shoes of signatories are Conservative or Liberal Democrat.

But there are a handful of Labour authorities too, although the Times says several of them contacted the paper ahead of publication asking to be removed from the list.

The letter says that councils fully support providing ghd  additional help to those with the greatest care needs, but says that the legislation has “major weaknesses” and risks putting strain on a system already under considerable financial pressure.

The councils also say they have “major doubts” over how the scheme would be funded and suggest many vulnerable people will have their expectations raised that they may benefit “when the reality may be significantly different”.

Ministers believe the pledge could help 400,000 people to stay in their own homes each year.

Motion defeated

Phil Hope, the care services minister, said Mbt it was extremely disappointing that local authorities supported the principle, but were quibbling and complaining about making it happen.

Council chiefs have previously stated that the government has “significantly underestimated” the cost of delivering free social care.

A poll of 61 directors of social services discount Mbt shoes has suggested providing care to those most in need costs £200 a week, which is double the government’s estimate.

The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) said it backed the idea, planned for implementation in England, but wants a rethink on the funding.

And an attempt to delay a bid to provide the free personal care at home for people in England has failed after the House of Ghd  Lords voted against a motion tabled by former health minister Lord Warner.

He had argued that the government’s proposal was “unaffordable” and proper consultation had not taken place.

A man branded a “wannabe suicide bomber” by prosecutors will learn later if he is to be released after his conviction was overturned on appeal.

Mohammed Atif Siddique, 24, a Mbt  student from Alva, Clackmannanshire, was found guilty of terrorism charges in 2007.

But Appeal Court judges in Edinburgh said on 29 January he had suffered a “miscarriage of justice” and quashed Mbt shoes the conviction.

The Crown will now decide whether it wishes to seek a fresh prosecution.

The shopkeeper’s son was jailed for eight years in October 2007 after a four-week trial in Glasgow.

He was found guilty of two charges under the Terrorism Act 2000, one under the Terrorism Act 2006 and a breach of the peace.

In January Lord Osborne criticised the way  mbt sale the trial judge explained the main Terrorist Act charge to the jury.

The judge, sitting with Lords Reed and Clarke in Edinburgh, said the “material misdirection” amounted to “a miscarriage of justice”.

Mr Siddique remains in custody, discount Mbt shoes pending the Crown Office’s decision

They say mbt sale Mr Yanukovych has a lead of several percentage points over opponent Yulia Tymoshenko, the Prime Minister.
He challenged Mrs Tymoshenko to quit, but she refused to concede.
If confirmed, it would be a remarkable comeback for Mr Yanukovych, who was swept aside five years ago by the peaceful “Orange Revolution”.
Under the 59-year-old Ghd former mechanic, Ukraine’s foreign policy is expected to become more pro-Russian.
‘Full circle’
The BBC’s Richard Galpin in Kiev says a Yanukovych win would be an extraordinary indictment of the pro-Western Orange Revolution leaders’ failure to deliver on their promises, which has left people deeply disillusioned.
Politics in Ukraine has now gone full circle, our correspondent adds.
Mr Yanukovych was a Mbt presidential candidate in the last election in 2004, which was found to have been rigged in his favour.
Mrs Tymoshenko’s impassioned leadership of the subsequent street protests that swept him from power – and thrust her to office, along with Viktor Yushchenko – made her an international celebrity.
Incumbent President Viktor Yushchenko lost in the first round of the election last month.
Mr Yanukovych has secured 48.7% of the vote against Mrs Tymoshenko’s 45.5%, according to the National Exit Poll.
Another exit poll, by ICTV, said he took 49.8%, against 45.2% for his rival.
It would be a narrower margin of MBT Shoe victory than his campaign had been hoping for.
Mr Yanukovych reportedly said it was time for his rival to quit.
“I think that Yulia Tymoshenko should prepare to resign. She understands that well,” Interfax-Ukraine quoted him as saying in a television interview.
“In any case, I believe such a Mbt suggestion will be put to her.”
But Mrs Tymoshenko, 49, showed no sign of standing down.
In a news conference, she said her team was conducting a “parallel count” and urged them to “fight for every result, every document, every vote”, reports Reuters news agency.
The election commission is not due to release preliminary results until Monday morning, but our correspondent in Ukraine says exit polls there are generally accurate.
Mud-slinging
Mr Yanukovych won last month’s first round of voting, finishing 10 percentage points ahead of Mrs Tymoshenko.
She has threatened to take her MBT Shoes supporters to the streets if defeated, saying the protests could be larger than those of the Orange Revolution.
Sunday’s vote came after a bitter mud-slinging campaign in which real policy issues and debate appeared to have been forgotten, says our correspondent.
On Saturday, Mrs Tymoshenko’s political bloc accused Mr Yanukovych’s Party of Regions of blocking her supporters from overseeing the vote in the eastern Donetsk region.
Mr Yanukovych’s camp hit back with allegations that some supporters of the prime minister had been tampering with ballots in an attempt to get votes from eastern Ukraine disqualified.
President Yushchenko – who came fifth in last month’s first round – led a series of bitter personal attacks on former ally Mrs Tymoshenko during the campaign.
His working relationship MBT Shoe with the prime minister over the last five years was poisoned by bickering as Ukraine became engulfed by an economic crisis, with its GDP plummeted 15% last year.

A Turkish teenager found dead in a hole next to her house was probably buried alive, a post-mortem examination has revealed.

Medine Memi, 16, Mbt  was found in the hole in December. Large amounts of soil were in her lungs and stomach, according to a source who has seen the report.

Her father and grandfather have been arrested, but not charged.

So-called “honour killings” take place every year in Turkey despite government moves to stamp out the practice.

Two months after police found Medine’s body buried in the garden of her family home, a team of doctors at a university in Malatya has completed the post-mortem examination.

According to a source who has seen their report, there was only minor bruising on her body, and no evidence of her ghd being drugged.

Concrete covered

Her hands had been tied behind her back, and they discovered large amounts of soil in her lungs and stomach.

The autopsy has concluded that she was almost certainly buried alive.

The police went to her home after a neighbour reported that Medine had not been seen for a month.

They found her body in a hole, newly covered  Mbt shoes  with concrete, next to the hen-house.

A local organisation that campaigns against honour killings said the victim, one of 10 children, had gone three times to the police to complain that she was being beaten, but she was sent back to her family each time.

A member of the organisation visited Medine’s mother a few days after her body was found, but she was too distraught to give them much information.

Conservative community

Medine, who had never been to school,  Ghd   lived in Kahta, a town in the mainly Kurdish south-east of Turkey, where most honour killings have taken place.

The town is known for being very conservative and religious; it is a stronghold of the once powerful Naksibendi Islamic sect, which was banned by modern Turkey’s founding father Ataturk in 1925 but has revived in recent years.

But while it is true that most such killings are carried out in conservative Muslim communities, the practice is linked more to the customs of this region of Turkey, than to religious belief.

When girls or women are deemed to have stained the family honour, by behaviour as innocent as simply talking to boys, there is strong peer pressure from the community on the male members of the family to restore their honour, say groups working on the issue in the south-east.

The only way allowed by their code is to kill the girl or woman – usually a young man is given the task after a family council ghd straighteners   discount Mbt shoesmeeting, and the method and location of the killing are discussed in detail.

Emotional state

Afterwards, the family will try to pretend she never existed.

The government has tried to curb the practice by changing the guidance given to judges.

In the case of honour killings they are no longer allowed to use mitigating factors like the accused’s emotional state to reduce sentences.

But this has so far had a limited impact.

According the statistics from the prime minister’s office, there were 16 honour killings in Medine’s province of Adiyaman between 2003 and 2007.

NGOs say the official figures are almost certainly too low.

Last year a Turkish man was sentenced to life imprisonment in London for the murder of his 15-year-old daughter a decade earlier. Her body has never been found.

Real Madrid and the agent of Fernando Gago have launched a scathing attack on Manchester City after accusing the Barclays Premier League club of bungling the handling of the Argentina midfield player’s proposed move to England.

Marcello Lombilla, Gago’s representative, claimed that City had “used us” while Jorge Valdano, the Real sporting director, also expressed misgivings about their approach to ghd hair straighteners negotiations, although the criticism has been greeted with much dismay by senior officials at the Manchester club.

As reported by The Times on Tuesday, City had been in direct talks with Real for much of last month but were unwilling to meet the Spanish club’s valuation of Gago.

When Real suddenly dropped their Mbt shoes asking price from €25 million to about €17 million (£14.8 million) on Monday — just hours before the transfer window was due to close — City offered to take Gago on loan until the end of the season on the understanding that they would sign the player permanently in the summer.

Having not been granted permission to talk with Gago and with no time to negotiate wages or complete a thorough medical, City were reluctant to try to rush through a MBT Shoe deal, and with Real rejecting the idea of loaning the player, the proposed transfer fell through.

Lombilla was furious, although his anger is thought to stem partly from his belief that Real backtracked on their claim that Gago was not for sale.

“City used us,” he said. “This has never happened to me before. I don’t want to talk about the figures that City were offering because they approached Madrid Ghd without even knowing there wasn’t physically enough time to put something together.”

Valdano said: “They had nothing prepared, not even one document signed. They had not reached an agreement with the player and they would have had to have done everything in 40 minutes.” Pablo Zabaleta, the City defender, may have to undergo an operation on his nose at the end of the season.

The Argentinian had his nose reset on Tuesday after it was broken, severing an artery in the process, in a clash with Kevin-Prince Boateng, the Portsmouth midfield MBT Shoes player, during City’s 2-0 win on Sunday.

Danny Butterfield does not score often for Crystal Palace — one goal in the previous six years, to be precise — but his remarkable hat-trick in six second-half minutes ghd hair straighteners at Selhurst Park on Tuesday night could prove the saving of the Coca-Cola Championship club.

Palace went into administration last week but their gutsy FA Cup fourth-round replay win over Wolverhampton Wanderers could earn them almost £450,000. Which might, er, keep the wolves from the door. At least temporarily.

Butterfield’s treble meant that Palace collected £180,000 for progressing to the last 16 of the competition and another £247,500 for the live televising of their fifth-round home Mbt match against Aston Villa on February 14.

Whether that turns into a St Valentine’s Day massacre does not matter. For the moment. Palace have given themselves some breathing space from their creditors, no mean feat after the turmoil of a week ago.

“It’s a great night for everyone and it’ll be a great day against Villa,” Neil Warnock, the Palace manager, said. “I told Danny he was going to score but I never thought he’d get three. He’s been lively in training, and I don’t know what he’s on, but we all want some of it.”

Scratch the surface, though, and Palace’s problems run deep. The players’ wages for January were paid only yesterday at 5pm and Warnock has had to fend off vulture-like clubs trying to pick at the Palace carcass.

Wolves tried to sign Nathaniel Clyne, the Palace right back, but were knocked back. “I think they offered two-and-six,” Warnock said. “Jez Moxey discount Mbt shoes [the Wolves chief executive] is always after, what shall I say, a bargain. But we’ve not let all this affect us. I’d never allow that, anyway.”

The worst may be yet to come. Earlier in the day, the club were warned by the administrator that they might have to sell more players to balance their books, having already let Victor Moses, the much-admired 18-year-old forward, join Wigan Athletic for £2.5 million on Monday.

Brendan Guilfoyle, of P&A Partnership, needs to raise a further £1.5 million to cover the £4 million that is required for the rest of the campaign. “Many clubs are struggling and, at a lot of clubs, the cash just isn’t there to invest in new players,” he said.

Palace plummeted from ninth place, before their ten-point ghd straighteners deduction, to twentieth. Yet their spirit clearly remains undimmed by matters out of their control and they tore into a toothless Wolves side.

A bit like Mick McCarthy, the Wolves manager, tore into his players after they had been comprehensively dismantled. “After the first goal, a free header, it was a downward spiral,” McCarthy said. “I’m not going to condemn my team here. I’ve just done that to them personally. I just didn’t see this coming.”

Butterfield had previously scored only seven goals for the club in 252 appearances, but, all of a sudden, it became ten in 253. Revelling in a role in which Moses had excelled — lurking behind the frontline — he exploded into life in the 61st minute.

First, he nodded in from close range after Matt Lawrence’s header had been kept out by Wayne Hennessey. Then he latched on to flicks from Alan Lee and Darren Ambrose to beat Hennessey; then Lee provided the ammunition and Butterfield again pulled the trigger. Karl Henry’s goal in stoppage time for Wolves Mbt shoes proved meaningless. They barely turned up.

Carlo Ancelotti believes that Chelsea can turn the Barclays Premier League into a two-horse race between his team and Manchester United by beating ghd hair straighteners Hull City this evening.

Chelsea, the leaders who are a point ahead of United, will open up a five-point lead over Arsenal, who are third, if they win at the KC Stadium this evening, a comfortable gap that would give them some room to manoeuvre when Arsene Wenger’s side visit Stamford Bridge on Sunday.

“It is a big gap,” Ancelotti said. “If we win this game [this evening], we then have the possibility to win against them on Sunday. If this happens then Arsenal has to run for third Mbt place.

“It is a good moment. We’re playing really well, there is confidence in our play and I am happy with this because now is a very important part of the season. We will soon be starting the Champions Mbt  League again so it is important to stay top of the league.”

Ancelotti welcomes back Didier Drogba into his squad for the first time in five weeks this evening, and is expecting a big performance from a player who scored twice against Hull on the opening day of the season.

“We won in the last minute with very good play from Didier and he is ready to play tomorrow,” Ancelotti said. “We need to have his performance in this game and we know we have to pay attention to discount Mbt shoes. We want to keep the gap between Manchester United at four points so we have to win.”

In the space of a few seconds towards the end of the first half at the Emirates Stadium yesterday Wayne Rooney demonstrated precisely why Manchester United are preparing to offer him the biggest contract in the history of the club. Unlike Cristiano Ronaldo, his predecessor as United’s talisman, the England forward cannot wait to sign it.

Rooney has been leading his side’s charge for honours for some time, but his 100th Premier League goal may come to be remembered as the clearest illustration of his special ghd hair straighteners gifts.

This was the all-round footballer the nation was promised when a fresh-faced and pale Scouser burst on to the scene as a teenager, possessing a unique blend of skill, vision, athleticism and, of course, a rare finishing ability. Rooney’s goal, like the player himself, had everything.

World-class sprinters would have been proud of the lung-busting run that took Rooney more than 60 yards from deep in his own half to the edge of Arsenal’s penalty area in the 38th minute, yet after demonstrating his impressive speed, he scorned such modern notions as recovery. The 24-year-old had begun the move, picking up Park Ji Sung’s clearance to find Nani haring away down the right, and he set off in hot pursuit, parting five Arsenal defenders as Moses did the Red Sea before arriving in a striker’s version of the Promised Land, the opposition penalty area.

On receiving the ball back from Nani he showed the calmness of an assassin, shooting past Manuel Almunia with his first touch for his 22nd goal of the season. Even Sir Alex Ferguson, whose “excited grandad” celebratory jig was more animated than normal, could hardly believe his eyes.

“Rooney was unbelievable,” the United manager said. “He was the key point for us because they just couldn’t handle him. Everything was played towards him, behind him or in front of Mbt shoes him and he was on it all the time. It was really great play today.

“We’ve always known he wants to stay as the boy’s very happy at the club. You couldn’t meet a better lad, really. He’s a down-to-earth boy. He’ll not change, that’s the way he is.

“It’s refreshing in this day and age when you see the amount of celebrity-type footballers who earn a lot of money, but he never changes.”

Ferguson refused to elaborate on the specifics of Rooney’s contractual situation, but David Gill, the chief executive, revealed afterwards that the club will open negotiations with his advisers in the summer. Despite their eye-popping debt, United will offer Rooney a new five-year deal worth £150,000 a week to keep him out of the clutches of Real Madrid and Barcelona, destinations he is keen to visit ghd straighteners, but only in the Champions League. With his family down the road in Liverpool and a young family at home, Rooney has no wish to leave his abode in leafy Cheshire.

“We would hope Wayne would stay with us until he has finished playing,” Gill said. “He has a contract to 2012 and that will be addressed during the close season because we would want to put him on a new long-term contract.

“We have not got round to those discussions yet because Wayne is focusing on the football and the World Cup. But he is 24 and has his best years ahead of him. For obvious reasons, very few UK-based players want to leave Manchester United.”

Such affinity to the North West is not always the case with foreign players, although on yesterday’s evidence, Nani’s departure from United may not be as inevitable as it once seemed. The Portugal winger shrugged off the fallout from a row with Ferguson this season to produce his best performance for the Ghd club, creating the opening goal after leaving Gaël Clichy, Samir Nasri and Denilson mesmerised by his footwork before providing the second.

Unlike Rooney, who scored a hat-trick on his debut for United as an 18-year-old, the similarly prodigiously talented Nani has taken some time to make his mark after his £17 million signing from Sporting three years ago, but it will have been worth the wait if he continues in this vein.

“The boy has come back,” Ferguson said. “He had an injury, but has come back freshened up. His last three games have been first-class.”

It would be daft to claim that the champions do not miss Ronaldo but, even allowing for Rooney’s contribution, the most encouraging aspect of this performance for Ferguson were the MBT Shoes indications that United are no longer a one-man team.