A press release drops in the mail box offering an apology: It states that “the winners of Franchisee of the Year were… Barking Mad. This was incorrect.” Turns out the real winners were Right at Home.
It was another example of how people these days give their companies the sort of crazy names adopted by rock bands. If that gave us a chuckle, it was followed by another statement on Greenock’s new cruise terminal funding containing this tongue-twister of a job title … “Peel Ports Clydeport Port Director”. He must have had some fun with that one.
Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown joined in the day’s jocularity by injecting a comedy element to a conference speech on the new world economic order at the Balmoral Hotel.
In between his call for greater international co-operation to counter the rise of populism, nationalism and protectionism, he said he had once attended an IMF meeting where he was greeted by a banner which read: “Worldwide Campaign Against Globalisation”. It may have been ironic, or dumb. Who knows? At least it grabbed his attention.
Perhaps the best teeth-clenching message so far this year was this press release titled: “Website spelling and grammer mistakes cost UK businesses millions in lost customers.”
That one arrived in March. Funnily enough, we haven’t heard from them since.
Holiday essentials
So, you’re planning your holidays. What do you put top of the list as the essential item that you just can’t do without?
Research into Scottish attitudes to holidays has found electronic devices such as mobile phones, tablets and e-readers are considered Scotland’s most important holiday essentials, with 69% saying they’re high up on their packing list.
Respondents put forward ‘other’ items also important to them for a happy holiday and teabags came up regularly. Surprise essentials were celery and masking tape.
Toilet paper features at number six in the table with 6% of Scots considering it a holiday essential – on equal footing with family photos. Unsurprisingly, parents (8%) tend to take toilet roll on holiday more than non-parents (6%), but oddly this spikes significantly for parents of children aged between 17 and 18 years with more than one in six (17%) considering it a holiday essential.
Cautious practicality wins out with headache and diarrhoea tablets taking the second and third spots for Scottish holiday essentials, at 47% and 29% respectively.
A warning comes from survey sponsor Chris Rolland, CEO of AllClear, who says travel insurance policies usually have a limit on the number and value of gadgets that can be claimed within baggage cover.
“Many people may well be going over this limit and might want to consider additional gadget cover,” he says.
“Baggage and gadget cover is certainly useful when something goes wrong, but the more common and bigger claims arise from cancellation and medical bills abroad. The latter can reach hundreds of thousands of pounds and so it is essential to be properly covered this summer.”
|
|
Holiday essential |
Scottish holidaymakers |
|
1 |
Electronic Devices (mobile phone / ipad, etc.) |
69% |
|
2 |
Headache tablets |
47% |
|
3 |
Diarrhoea tablets |
29% |
|
4 |
Curling tongs / straighteners |
13% |
|
5 |
Condoms / contraception |
11% |
|
6 |
Toilet roll |
6% |
|
6 |
Photographs of family / children |
6% |
|
8 |
Religious text |
3% |
|
9 |
Photographs of pet |
2% |
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