Ryanair - you're having a laugh

Tomorrow morning I am catching a flight, with my son, to Dublin to see England's Grand Slam match against Ireland.

I was rather lucky to get tickets. A friend of mine lives in Ireland and he just happens to know someone very close to the Irish rugby team and this person very kindly offered my friend tickets and he, even more kindly, gave them to me.

Anyway, I booked our Ryanair flights a few weeks ago and last night I was just about to print our boarding passes when I noticed that my booking had been registered in the name of 'Simon Philip' instead of 'Simon Clark' (Philip being my middle name).

I don't know how it happened. I have booked so many flights with Ryanair recently that I probably wasn't paying attention when I completed the online booking form. (Personally, I blame my 'smart' computer.)

To avoid any problem I thought I'd better change it before I arrive at Stansted tomorrow with a passport and boarding pass in different names. So I clicked on 'Manage Account', found the appropriate section, and changed the passenger name from 'Simon Philip' to 'Simon Clark'.

And you know what? Ryanair charged me £100 to do it!!!

I know, I know, Ryanair are famous for their additional costs. Well, I don't mind paying for extras like a gin and tonic, or even priority boarding (I love priority boarding!). But £100 to change my name?

They're having a laugh.

Update on Friday, March 18, 2011 at 9:45 by Simon Clark

The Six Nations rugby kicks off at 5.00pm at the new Aviva Stadium. On Sunday we're planning to see Dublin v Mayo in the GAA Football League at Croke Park, Ireland's other national stadium.

The story of Croke Park, including the infamous Croke Park Massacre in 1920, is a fascinating one. I've been there once before, a few years ago when there was a capacity crowd of 80,000, and it was a wonderful experience.

I'm not sure that Dublin needs two large stadiums. Given Croke Park's history there was something wonderfully symbolic about Gaelic and 'English' games being played in the same arena while Lansdowne Road was being redeveloped.

Some people thought it would never happen but it did, and it was a great success. Practical too. The Aviva holds just 50,000. The black market will be busy tomorrow.

Are today's stars running scared?

With some honorable exceptions, are today's stars running scared of the bully state?

"What on earth has happened to the tradition of stars breaking taboos and causing mayhem?" asks Tom Miers on The Free Society.

It used to be said that the decadence of Western rock culture was a sign of our free society. The rockers reacted against the conservative mores of the post war years, and the more they were condemned the worse they behaved.

What started with floppy haircuts swiftly graduated to orgies, drugs, swearing, sex acts on stage, trashing hotels and general hell-raising. Smoking and drinking were minor props to the carnival of chaos ...

The whole point of rock ‘n’ roll is that it’s meant to break taboos and rebel against the established norms of boring old responsible society. So you would have thought that the stars of today would love nothing better than sticking a v-sign up at the PC brigade, not to mention the health lobbyists.

So what have they to be afraid of? Not falling sales, surely. Really bold establishment-bashing improves popularity among the young.

Perhaps there’s something else. Being a rebel now involves not so much teasing old fuddy-duddies as teasing government. And government carries a big stick. The bully state is starting to clamp down on opinions and behaviour it disapproves of. Maybe the rockers are running scared.

NHS Trust conducts poll on smoking in hospital grounds

An NHS Trust in Colchester wants to ban smoking in hospital grounds, forcing smokers to walk 300 yards to a busy main road if they want to light up.

Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust used No Smoking Day to launch a poll on its proposals. You must respond online before March 31, but why wait (hint hint).

The local paper has the story, with a quote from me, here.

Tobacco display ban - news and interviews

Channel 4 News featured a report about the tobacco display ban last week. Included a soundbite from me.

To hear an interview with me on Five Live Drive, click here before Wednesday. You'll find it at 2:18:40.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley was interviewed on the same programme at 00:21:30.

Welcome to the promise land

Back from Ireland but busy writing an article so things may be a little quiet for a while.

Did I mention that I am flying back to Dublin on Saturday? I have been promised tickets for the Ireland-England match at the new Aviva Stadium. In Ireland however a promise is no guarantee so I have booked my flight, and a hotel close to the ground, in hope rather than expectation.

Fingers crossed.

No rest for the wicked

Just back from London where I was interviewed by Five Live Drive and Channel 4 News.

Earlier I gave interviews on behalf of Forest to BBC Radio Sussex, Radio Devon, Radio Cambridgeshire, Radio Solent, Radio Sheffield and Radio Essex.

Meanwhile, representing The Free Society, my colleague Tom Miers was interviewed by Radio Cumbria, Radio Merseyside and Radio Lincolnshire.

I'd sleep well tonight ... if I didn't have to get up at 3.30 to drive to Stansted to catch an early morning (6.20) flight to Cork.

There really is no rest for the wicked.

Update: Currently in Dublin, having flown into Cork at 7.45 for a meeting with John Mallon of Forest Eireann after which I caught the inter-city train to Dublin (a three-hour journey), arriving mid afternoon.

Evenings in Dublin are never dull and tonight should be no different. I'm meeting up with three "business associates" and the fun starts at 7.30. Wish me luck before I go-go ...

That tobacco control plan in full

The Department of Health has now released its Tobacco Control Plan.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has confirmed plans to implement Labour legislation to ban the display of tobacco in shops.

Retailers will be given additional time to prepare. The regulations will now begin on 6 April 2012 for large stores and 6 April 2015 for all other shops.

On plain packaging, "the Government has an open mind and wants to hear views". There will be a consultation and an "assessment of the impact" before the end of 2011.

Quoting directly from the written statement, the Tobacco Control Plan has three "national ambitions" to reduce smoking rates in England by the end of 2015:

• From 21.2 per cent to 18.5 per cent or less among adults
• From 15 per cent to 12 per cent or less among 15 year olds, and
• From 14 per cent to 11 per cent or less among pregnant mothers

"These ambitions represent reductions in smoking rates that exceed the reductions we have seen in the past five years."

The Government has set out key actions in the following six areas:

• stopping the promotion of tobacco;
• making tobacco less affordable;
• effective regulation of tobacco products;
• helping tobacco users to quit;
• reducing exposure to secondhand smoke; and
• effective communications for tobacco control.

Full Government statement here.

See also: Forest attacks tobacco control plans (press release),
Brand ban no way to a Big Society (Tom Miers, The Free Society)

Update on Wednesday, March 9, 2011 at 12:07 by Simon Clark

Media coverage includes:

Big tobacco counter cover-up (Daily Mail)
Tobacco displays to be banned from shops (BBC News)
Tobacco display to be banned in UK in push to cut smoking-related deaths (Bloomberg)

There's also an amusing piece the Daily Mash:

Tories to treat you like children too: it is not just the Labour Party who wants to treat you like a three year-old child, it has emerged.

H/T Tom Miers

Have the Tories misread support for tobacco control?

However depressing today's Government announcement may be, there is some good news.

Long gone, for example, are the days when it felt as though Forest was fighting a lone battle against the anti-smoking movement.

For the first time I can remember, there is a genuine coalition of forces lined up against against excessive tobacco control, as a letter in today's Daily Telegraph reveals. It's signed by:

Patrick Basham, director, Democracy Institute
Dr Eamonn Butler, director, Adam Smith Institute
Donna Edmunds, director of Research, Progressive Vision
Dr Helen Evans, director, Nurses for Reform
Dr Tim Evans, chairman, Economic Policy Centre
Daniel Hamilton, director, Big Brother Watch
Angela Harbutt, executive director, Liberal Vision
Tim Knox, acting director, Centre for Policy Studies
Mark Littlewood, director-general, IEA
Matthew Sinclair, director, The TaxPayers’ Alliance
Simon Richards, director, The Freedom Association

Meanwhile I have written article for ConservativeHome – aWhatever happened to the party of business, deregulation and personal responsibility?.

Regardless of your political affiliation, please add a comment to demonstrate the strength of opinion on this issue. Click here.

You should also write to your newspaper and to your Conservative MP, if you have one.