Mr. Boombastic

How do you suppose you get the gig as the travel editor of "The Sun"? Rock up at the interview with a CV that says you once went on an away-day from London to Brighton or a hen weekend to Riga? "You'll do."

I suspect there's more to it than that, but you do wonder. Perhaps the travel editor was disturbed from a long Sunday lunch with a desperate demand for a hundred words about the Palma bombs. "Anything'll do."

What we got was that the bombs could spell the end of tourism in Spain and that tourists will avoid Mallorca. Just read that again - the end of tourism in Spain. And this comes from the travel editor? Had it been some dolt on a forum somewhere, you might have understood it (well even then you wouldn't have), but a travel editor? The press may be taken to task for being irresponsible, not least in its reporting of the bomb incidents in Mallorca, but there is a big difference between irresponsibility and complete, undiluted garbage. There will be no end of tourism in Spain, tourists will not avoid Mallorca. The incidents have been small beer set against the bottles of 70 plus per cent proof spirits that went up in the likes of Egypt and Turkey. Has tourism in these places come to an end? I ask again, this comes from the travel editor?

One has also to consider that the bombs were in Palma, two in the Portixol area. Had they been in, say, Magalluf or Alcúdia, one could understand a greater level of hysteria. But they weren't. Portixol is something of a place of new chic; it was being bigged up in "The Sunday Times" (travel section) a couple of weeks ago, but it is not a significant tourist destination in the same way as Magalluf is.


Still on the press and indeed the News International stable, I have had occasion to mention Michael Winner in the past. He is an absolute favourite, a deliciously acerbic, bombastic and cantankerous critic who really doesn't give a damn. He should be a national treasure. Maybe he is. Well, he's been back in Mallorca, spurning the offer of being a house guest at Andrew Lloyd-Webber's pile in Deià in favour of a stint at La Residencia, the hotel that used to be owned by Richard Branson. (Incidentally, I had a dream the other night in which Virgin, in Spain, had been re-branded as "Branson"; curious what one dreams about, but I digress.) Winner was in full vitriolic-pen mode. "Most sloppy management ever." A bellboy who doubled as a chauffeur who was "incompetent". A broken sun lounger. A water menu that was not shown to guests and which failed to feature Evian. Anyway, I daresay you can read all this on the "Times" website. Not for much longer for nothing though, if the Murdochs go down the subscription route. Fair enough, and given that five euros a pop for a slimmed-down edition of "The Sunday Times" in Spain is exorbitant, it may well work out advantageously, albeit that it will not be as advantageous as free.


QUIZ
Shalamar, "Take That To The Bank", http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CceR9vVGPG4. Today's title - had it before but not as a title as such.

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