ALTON TOWERS PROSECUTION Operators of Alton Towers theme park, Merlin Attractions Operation Ltd are to be prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive …

SAFER AIR SHOWS? Following the Shoreham Air Show disaster last year which saw 11 people on the ground die the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has introduced tougher new …

HI-TECH VENUE IN SHOREDITCH The Brew opened last year at 163, City Road. Shoreditch, London, opposite Moorfields Eye Hospital and close to Old Street …

OMMEGANG 2016 Those who enjoy the pomp and pageantry of a historical procession will want to know about the annual Imaging event, staged in Brussels this year July 5-7 …

A LOOK AT FRYSLAN Wrongly called “Friesland” by us Brits this province in the North of the Netherlands has the black and white Holstein-Friesian cows, famous for their …

SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED IN AMSTERDAM Organisers looking to run small and medium-sized events in Amsterdam, and who worry that they could rattle around in the …

GRACE & FAVOUR Fans of the 70s and 80s British BBC TV sitcom “Are You Being Served?” will know that five of the troupe went on to play, in 1992/3, in a 12-part spin-off …

ATTEMPTED MASS MURDER It must now be time to consider banning all laser devices available to the general public since the increasing criminal use of them to dazzle and …

AIRPORT NEWS
o Parking companies operating at London Gatwick Airport are coming under scrutiny…
o Chancellor George Osbourne has promised to stop airport shops such as Boots and …

SPEAKER FEE ROW. A row over the non-payment of fees to authors and speakers at the Oxford Literary Festival has forced the charity running it to re-consider its …

NORTH OF HOLLAND – GRONINGEN Getting to Groningen in the North of Holland is quick and easy if you start from the compact Southend Airport, as an up to eight times …

BIG SEASIDE VENUE IN HOLLAND One big hotel choice for organisers on the Dutch coast is the long-established five-star and family-owned and managed Grand Hotel …

RESIDENTIAL EVENTS NEAR LEAMINGTON SPA Those, like us, who prefer a map to satnav and looking to visit the Woodland Grange residential events centre near …

OUR FIRST WETHERSPOON HOTEL Those expecting a two or three-star hotel room at the new Southend on Sea Wetherspoon Hotel at the massive Last Post pub in Weston…

ART CENTRE IN NORWICH Organisers looking for an art-related venue in the Norwich area can consider the Modern Life Cafe of the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts…

THE CRUEL STORY OF YOUTH The main characters in this stunningly-shot 1960s Art House morality tale of Japanese delinquents are, like Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow…

CULTURE SHOCK European cities are likely to become permanent no-go areas for women if the mass sex attacks in Cologne, Hamburg, Stuttgart and Helsinki on New Year’s Eve are ever repeated.

REMEMBER THIS Researchers at Herriott-Watt University have discovered that a period of rest immediately after being presented with a lot of new material helps to consolidate …

TRACK RECORDS British commuters on our privatised railways are paying up to six times more for their travel than many of their counterparts in Europe, who are using …

UNFAIR TRADING Hotel booking platform Booking.com have been censured by the German regulator, the Federal Cartel Office (FCO) for a clause in their contracts with …

FIRE CLOSES DUBAI HOTEL The five-star, 63-storey Address Downtown Dubai hotel is currently closed after a major fire broke out there in the closing hours of 2015 …

ART AND EVENTS Organisers looking for a London venue with strong artistic connections can enjoy the sumptuous surroundings of the Leighton House Museum …

CHEERS Caterers Searcys are offering £1500 worth of drinks, including VAT, free for new event bookings at The Gherkin for January – March. The offer applies to evening …

THE QUIET MAN With the name Marion Michael Morrison the man was probably not going to make it in some of the best action movies made but with the stage name of  …

BRINGING THIS UP AGAIN A report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on preventable food-borne diseases indicates that food-poisoning affects as many as one …

THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT? Nearly 200 jobs are being axed at Merlin Entertainment’s Alton Towers theme park due to lower takings following the June accident on the £18 …

LIVE EVENTS SURGE Spending on live music concerts and festivals reached £2.1 billion this year, 45% up on 2010. According to research company Mintel, who say …

MORE EATING OUT The number of new openings of London restaurants is at its highest level for 25 years. This has been revealed in the 2016 edition of Hardens London …

FREE F&B IN NEWCASTLE Organisers are being offered free food and drink to the value of their space booking at Newcastle United’s St James’ Park Stadium …

AN AFFECTING VENUE One of London’s most thought-provoking venues offered for events is the Foundling Museum in Brunswick Square, which explores the work and …

ON THE SEAFRONT Those looking for a classy seaside venue in the North-West with an impressive space for corporate events will want to look at the independent Dalmeny …

BRUM FOR BIZ Birmingham is the most popular destination outside London for corporate events, for the seventh consecutive tear. This is the finding of the 2015/2016 seventh …

SHANE A survey of the top ten Westerns by the American Film Institute (AFI) revealed that George Stevens’s Shane, completed in 1952 and released in 1953 was the third …

AN UGLY FACE OF TOURISM Tourists being killed does seem to bring out the worst in people in our tourism industry. Egypt’s tourism minister Hisham Zaazou is a case in …

AND OTHERS Criticism of the way Thomas Cokk handled the deaths of two of its young customers by carbon monoxide poisoning at one of its chosen hotels in Corfu continues …

SUN, SEA, SAND AND SEAWEED Meanwhile some other tourist economies are seriously under threat down on some of the lovely beaches of the Caribbean, where …

YOUR PRIVATE JET AWAITS One recent development that could make flying less of a depressing experience, and travel more of an incentive for VIP groups, is a private jet …

HAIR TODAY… Clumps of hair, type unspecified, in the plughole was the complaint about hotels mentioned by 86% of respondents in a survey of 600 members of the public by …

EXCURSIONS Excursions 2016, the exhibition of options for those organising group travel takes place at Alexander Palace, London, on Saturday January 23 2016…

FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD An example of a film that was higher-rated by the public than the critics was the 1967 John Schlesinger adaption of Thomas Hardy’s rural …