The deaths of eleven members of the public at the Shoreham Air Show has finally persuaded our Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) that it is probably not a good idea to have aeroplanes doing stunts over land areas where people might be. Accordingly acrobatics over land by vintage jet aircraft have now been banned in Britain, for the time being at least.

The PR department at the British Air Display Association (BADA), whose members make money from air shows, has been quick to attempt a positive spin on the tragedy, claiming inaccurately that the last time any members of the public were unlucky enough to be killed at a UK air show was nearly 63 years ago in 1952. This was the year that a de Havilland jet broke apart in the air at the Farnborough Air Show killing the pilot and observer on board, and the crashing parts, in particular one engine that broke in half, then killed 29 spectators on the ground. In fact six passengers and their pilot also died at the Biggin Hill Air Show in 1980, 35 years ago, when a Douglas Invader, attempting a rolling climb, crashed in a valley, very close to a housing estate. So much for PR. Continue reading →

o Some pocket-friendly hotels in the USA are showering guests with freebies, according to the International New York Times. Continue reading →

Organisers looking for a five-star golf venue in Portugal, perhaps away from the Algarve, will want to check out the Hotel Quinta da Marinha Resort. This is located in a rural setting just outside the very pretty coastal town of Cascais, 25 kilometres west of Lisbon, in an area that has been dubbed “Portugal’s Beverly Hills”.

The hotel has its own 18-hole, par 71 Robert Trent Jones course with driving range, pitching area, putting green, equipment hire and pro teacher for lessons and clinics. For those who like to play on more than one course there is another one adjacent, one in nearby Estoril a few kilometres away and four more within 20 kilometres. On-site for golfers are 40 one and two-bedroom villas with the option of self-catering. Continue reading →

Organisers wanting to get their delegates doing something physical, or cerebral, for purposes of serious team-building or just serious fun have a number of options we explored on our recent press trip to the Belgian capital, courtesy of visitbrussels. Continue reading →

Claims that some restaurants and groups keep service charges that diners believe are shared among the waiting staff have sparked calls for changes in the practice of tipping.

Under fire in the media has been French chain Cote, who refute the claims, but the row has focused attention on tipping. On the one hand are those who say that the waiting staff are underpaid by their employers for what they do and rely on the generosity of restaurant customers to make up their wages with tax-free cash tips. Others say that the restaurants should pay their staff better and not rely on them being compensated for their employer’s meanness by their customers. Continue reading →

Event organisers are invited to join a complimentary three-day, two night familiarisation trip to Leeds, the Leeds Big Sleepover 2015.

This takes place Thursday 8 to Saturday 10 October, organisers are welcome to bring colleagues, partners or clients and there will be opportunities for individual inspections of chosen venues as well as a programme of hosted meals and entertainment.

Applications to Web: leedsbigsleepover.co.uk

Those interested in the broadcast media, whether to praise them for broadcasting without fear or favour or to condemn them for manufacturing news and for bias toward the sensational, will find Medium Cool a thought-provoking film.

This is ultimately set against the backdrop of the protests, and subsequent Chicago police rioting and mindless brutality at the city’s Democratic National Convention of August 1968, and features the attacks on journalists and camera operators by police who were keen not to be identified. As it turned out they needn’t have worried since police violence had gone unpunished before in the Windy City, and it was to be no different this time, even if the whole world was watching. Continue reading →

So now we know.

All of us who have ever assumed that staff at shops in our airports asking to see and record details of our boarding cards were obliged to do it for security or official reasons were very wrong. It is just so that the likes of Boots, WH Smith and Dixons Travel can avoid paying the 20% VAT on goods purchased when we fly to destinations outside the EC, passing none of the extra millions they are making onto us, their valued customers.

The revelations by the Independent newspaper, and published in every other public-spirited newspaper has already led to some travellers now refusing to show their boarding cards, a number that will hopefully grow as passengers realise the depth and extent of the gratuitous deceit. Continue reading →