As services slowly return to normal, many people are counting the cost and wondering whether or not they can claim money back from their travel insurers.

Does my insurance cover terrorism?

Unfortunately, not in the majority of cases.

Terrorism is what the industry calls an exclusion, meaning that most policyholders cannot claim for delays, lost hotel bookings, or incurred costs such as food and drinks.

Some policies do offer cover for disruption caused by the threat of terrorism or acts of terrorism, but they are generally more expensive and harder to find than the standard cover offered by most firms.

So I am going to be out of pocket?

Don’t panic, you won’t necessarily have to write off your best travel insurance uk cash.

Airlines such as British Airways, Easyjet and Ryanair have been doing their best to get people on their way and are offering to rebook and even refund tickets for flights that were cancelled or delayed.

If you organised a holiday through a travel agent or tour operator, you should also be OK.

The main thing to do is get in touch with the companies involved and find out what they are willing to do.

Also, keep your receipts and proof of spending - they probably will be asked for by the insurers in the event that the firms do offer to pay out.

But what if I booked the holiday myself?

This is where things get a bit trickier.

While you should still be able to fly to your health insurance liberty travel, you would not be able to claim for any add-ons such as lost hotel bookings or car hire.

A lot will depend on the terms and conditions of your insurance policy and how willing the provider is to try to help out.

Stephen Thorley is managing director of Travellers Protection Services, the company that provides insurance products for companies including budget airline Ryanair, cruise firm P&O and the Telegraph newspaper group.

Mr Thorley recommends calling your insurer directly and discussing your circumstances.

“We are all human,” he said. “And we have a sympathetic claims department.”

Mr Thorley said that his company had already taken steps to help clients, changing the policy on valuables so that they would be covered when a traveller’s entire baggage had to be checked in to a plane’s hold.

Travel insurance, what a rip-off!

It may seem that way, but the industry argues that it is doing its best to meet the needs of customers with policies that offer enough cover without breaking the bank.

Offering protection from terrorism “is one area we freely admit that even governments run scared from”, Mr Thorley said.

Consumer groups aren’t sitting quietly, however, and have pressured the government to look into the possible mis-selling of insurance by travel agents and tour operators.

The problem is that while many of the biggest insurance companies, such as Travellers Protection Services, are regulated by the Financial Services Authority, many of the smaller firms can operate without any supervision.

One area of concern is that many customers don’t get given enough information about the policies they are being sold by tour operators and travel agents, causing them to believe they are covered when in fact they aren’t.

So how can I make sure I am protected?

The Association of British Insurers recommends that you work out the type of cover you want and what best suits your travel needs - for example, you may find that an annual policy works out cheaper than buying separate insurance before each trip.

Then, when you get a price, shop around in what the ABI describes as a very competitive market.

And finally, make sure you read the terms and conditions carefully. It’s not small print, it’s the difference between getting proper insurance cover and finding yourself footing the bill instead.

Read source of it on the News - Q&A: Insurers tackle terror fears page

Travel insurance will be worth more than 650m in 2006, the Treasury said.

However, despite paying out large sums, too many people will find they are not properly covered, it warned.

The worry is that people may be sold travel insurance without having the terms and conditions properly explained to them.

Ed Balls, the new treasury minister for regulation of financial services, said the first step would be to talk to the industry to collect information.

‘Without a hitch’

More than 20 million people buy travel insurance every year, and based on consumer research many policies for the same trip offering similar levels of protection can vary in price by more than 200, the Treasury said.

Our investigation will ask whether it’s fair to put all the pressure on ordinary families to read the small print Ed Balls, Treasury Minister

“Millions of British families have worked hard all year to pay for their summer holidays and are hoping they pass off without a hitch,” Mr Balls said.

“But thousands of holidaymakers will suffer cancelled flights, lost valuables, and even medical problems,” he added.

Should the probe uncover evidence of mis-selling then the Treasury said it would have a number of routes to consider.

One option would be to require stronger self-regulation by the travel industry, while another may be to include it under the regulatory control of the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

Although stand-alone travel insurance providers are regulated by the Financial Services Authority, travel firms selling policies as bolt-ons to their holiday packages are not.

The Treasury said the government was “prepared to introduce new regulation if there is evidence of widespread problems in the selling of these products, which cannot be adequately dealt with by self-regulation”.

Industry standards

The consultation process will be launched in early autumn, the Treasury said, adding that it will talk to stakeholders, including travel agents, travel reps, insurers, trade bodies, consumer associations and consumers themselves.

The government last looked at the issue of travel insurance in 2003 but decided against imposing regulation because of concern at the impact on the cost of package holidays.

It also shied away from regulation because travel agents insisted their own industry code was providing sufficient consumer protection, the Treasury said.

“Our investigation will ask whether it’s fair to put all the pressure on ordinary families to read the small print and ask the right questions to make sure they are properly covered,” Mr Balls said.

“It will ask whether the travel industry should be doing more to ensure families are not left high and dry on their holidays and whether we need to strengthen regulation to protect them,” he said.

Consumer groups have raised concerns that this type of travel cover is over-priced, being mis-sold or policies contain too many get-out clauses.

Travel insurance sold as a bolt-on to a holiday is unregulated, but the sale of stand-alone cover is regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

The review may lead to FSA regulation of the whole travel insurance industry.

Public concerns

There have been growing concerns from consumer groups and sections of the industry that the market is not working as well as it could Ed Balls, Economic Secretary to the Treasury

Ed Balls, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, made the announcement that the review of the industry had started at a meeting with the influential Treasury Select Committee.

Mr Balls announcement was followed by a Treasury statement, which said the review would start with a call for evidence and widespread consultation.

Mr Balls said the review was in response to public concerns about travel cover sold along with a package holiday.

“In recent years there have been growing concerns from consumer groups and sections of the industry that the market is not working as well as it could, raising questions about whether regulation and appropriate redress should apply to the selling of travel insurance,” he said.

“We therefore need to get to the bottom of whether travel insurance sold with a holiday is being mis-sold, and whether we need to be doing more to educate consumers to consider the cover they want and ensure that they are properly informed.”

Previous investigation

The government last looked at the issue of travel insurance in 2003 but decided against imposing regulation because of concern over the impact on the cost of package holidays.

It also shied away from regulation because travel agents insisted their own industry code was providing sufficient consumer protection, the Treasury said.

The travel insurance sector will be worth more than 650m in 2006, Treasury analysts have said.

Read source of it on the News - Travel insurance probe under way site

One in four credit card holders were charged for exceeding their limit or missing a payment over the last year, according to a Which? magazine survey.

The consumer magazine said some firms sent purchase life insurance online out late and used second class post, giving customers less time to pay.

It said the charges, usually between 20 and 25, were out of amount insurance net political risk to the costs incurred by the companies.

The industry dismissed the criticisms as out of date.

However, in terms of borrowing, there are still good deals available from a number of credit card companies (see box).

0% on Balance Transfer & New Purchases Halifax - One Visa - after nine months (9.9%) Bank of Scotland - One Visa - after nine months (9.9%) Co-op - Travel Visa - after seven months (14.9%) Source: Moneyfacts

Among other practices highlighted by Which? as costing customers dearly were making minimum instant travel insurance online so low that customers take longer to repay the money, thereby attracting more in interest.

It said the industry made at least 1bn a year from the sale of payment protection insurance, but said most policies were overpriced and gave limited cover.

Other stories in today’s programme

Some investments you never hear much about in the media, others are heavily promoted by household names. The FSA recently fined Axa Sun Life 500,000 for producing misleading home insurance online owner purchase for the sale of two products. Should you be careful if a celebrity is pushing a product? Simon took a look.

UK health insurance student travel who did unpaid overtime in 2004 would have each earned 4,650 for their efforts if they had received a wage, a new report from the TUC says.

BT customers will have to pay more for early morning calls from 16 February.
About three million BT customers could see their bills rise as it shifts the start of its more costly daytime call rate from 8am to 6am.

Yellow school buses are big in America. Now a company in Newport is trying to make them big over here too. Rob visited the firm.

Travel insurance firm Cat dog insurance pet saw 2,094 claims from January to June - an 85% rise on the same period in 2006.

The figure includes both budget and other airlines. The average amount claimed was more than 200.

Insureandgo expects poor figures for the remainder of 2007, following a spate of lost bags recently.

Instant travel insurance online rise’

Based on figures from the Home insurance online owner purchase of European Airlines (AEA), Insureandgo said the number of bags lost throughout Europe rose 22% over the same period compared with last year, even though travel insurance usa numbers only rose 1.4%.

The AEA figures exclude budget airlines such as Easyjet and Ryanair.

Insureandgo managing director Perry Wilson said: “We have seen an enormous rise in claims for lost luggage.”

The average amount claimed by Travel insurance new zealand customers who lost luggage was about 200.

“With the summer holiday season now in full swing, we can unfortunately expect more families’ holidays to be ruined by lost baggage.”

The latest figures come after Norwich Union - Britain’s biggest insurance company - released figures showing that it saw a 40% increase in claims for missing luggage during the first half of the year.

In January, bad weather and a broken conveyer belt at Heathrow airport created huge confusion over luggage, with British Airways having to send back more than 2,000 items of left luggage to passengers.

More recently, BAA - the owner of Heathrow - has been attacked by business leaders and politicians for overcrowding and lost baggage problems.

British Airways lost more luggage than any other major European airline in 2006, according to figures from the Association of European Airlines (AEA).

But the good news is that although more junk mail will be sent, those that take steps to protect themselves are going to get a lot less of it landing in their inbox.

The reason that less spam will reach users, he believes, is because the computer industry has finally started working together to tackle the problem.

“One company alone cannot solve this,” he said.

Industrial action

One of the first results of this co-operation is the decision to unite formerly competing proposals to stop spam.

Microsoft, along with Amazon and anti-spam firm Brightmail, had backed an idea dubbed Caller-ID for e-mail.

This involved checking whether e-mail arrived from where it said it did. It was intended to combat spam that spoofs its amount insurance net political risk address.

TYPES OF SPAM Dubious products - 9% Graphical porn - 7.5% Other spam - 7.5% Newsletters - 6% Scams - 7% Travel/gambling/games - 3% Financial - 13% Herbal/drugs/vitamins - 10% Insurance - 4% Non-graphic porn - 33%

The competing proposal was called the Sender Policy Framework, which was backed by AOL, Yahoo, BT and others, also tried to spot forged addresses.

Now the two have been brought together into one proposal called Sender ID.

“We are right now finishing up converging the travel health insurance association and that will be submitted to the Internet Engineering Task Force once it is complete,” said Mr Webb.

The IETF has the job of improving and changing the net’s core architecture.

The alliance is significant because of Microsoft’s former dogged insistence on championing its own technology at the expense of others.

“We need to take action as an industry because before now there’s been a lot of talk,” said Mr Webb told BBC News Online. “Once you get consensus you want it rapidly adopted.”

Microsoft is also looking at ways to separate spam from legitimate marketing e-mail that people are happy to receive.

Mr Webb said Microsoft is also behind the idea of “bonded senders” which involves bulk mail firms lodging a cash sum as a guarantee that their e-mail is legitimate.

Charges are made against the bond if complaints are made about e-mail a company is sending.

Mr Webb said cash bonds and other reputation servers will help filtering systems sort the good from bad e-mail.

“That’s one of the key shortcomings of the model at the moment,” said Mr Webb, “filtering just treats every e-mail equally and that’s a problem that needs to be solved.”

Technical tricks

For people who send only a few e-mail messages per day Microsoft is also working on a way to force sending machines to carry out a short cheap family insurance travel task every time they despatch a message.

Spam is stopping people using e-mail

The task, which would take about 30 seconds to perform, would only inconvenience those sending thousands of messages from a desktop PC.

“It’s a pretty elegant idea and we are working on ways now to put this in products,” said Mr Webb.

Microsoft is also putting anti-spam filters in its Outlook e-mail program, Exchange e-mail server system and software for the MSN web service.

But, said Mr Webb, technology alone would not stop spam.

Microsoft had 14 lawyers filing lawsuits against unrepentant spammers and currently, said Mr Webb, it had 90 cases under way and more would follow.

Net service firms also had to take action against PCs on their networks that have been compromised and are acting as travel medical insurance uk relays.

He said that governments also had to frame laws to outlaw unsolicited e-mail and more had to be done to educate users about spam and what they can do to tackle it.

“People say that they were using e-mail less because of spam and they are extremely annoyed by it,” said Mr Webb.

But, he added, users do have to bear some of the blame.

“They have also bought more spam-related goods than you would think,” he said.

Mr Webb said that only progress on a lot of fronts will make spammers stop.

“The problem is this is a good business to be in today,” he said “that’s the core challenge we face.”

The world’s best squash players are using a new scoring system this week in a move aimed at making the game more exciting.

The number of points needed to win a game has been cut by almost a third - from 15 to 11 - akin to a football match being hacked back to 60 minutes, or the men’s final at Wimbledon being played as the best-of-three-sets.

It’s the latest tactic in the struggle to develop by a sport that has often been seen as more fun to play than to watch.

Critics say the change has been rushed in without proper cheap student travel insurance and will only confuse the public.

But many players and officials believe it is one of the most exciting times to be involved in the sport and that the latest change to the 150-year-old game will be a welcome boost.

Every point becomes crucial so you can’t hold back, you have to go for it early on Peter Nicol

Current world number one Peter Nicol says the new regime will undoubtedly raise the pace of a sport where the ball can travel at more than 170mph.

“It’s a bit of a myth that it will be easier on the players’ bodies,” said Nicol. “It’s going to make the game even quicker - more intense to play.”

Shorter games will also mean more key points and, it is hoped, enable matches to better fit in with television schedules.

Nicol added: “It is going to create more energy in the game, you’ll need to be playing full pace from the start - every point becomes crucial so you can’t hold back, you have to go for it early on.

Barrington’s dedication to fitness dragged the game into the pro era

The new rules are being used at the Automobile insurance purchase Squash Association’s Super Series finals in London this week, an event for the world’s top eight players.

Matches are the best-of-five-games played up to 11 points. In the event of a game reaching 10-all, the first player to win two straight points wins.

Unlike the amateur game where only the sever can win a point, professional matches have been scored on a point-per-rally basis for 16 years, partly in a bid to reduce the duration of matches which were lasting well over two hours.

The finals also see the return of the PSA’s live internet service, streaming matches free of charge around the world.

PSA chief executive Gawain Briars describes the tournament as a “watershed moment” for the sport, played in 135 countries on some 47,000 courts.

New PSA scoring system Health insurance student travel games to 11 points, point-a-rally scoring Club players play first to nine, only server wins a point Pro games will be shorter, faster, better for TV More crucial points, new tactics needed May be better for players longevity Aim is to attract more interest in the game

“If the professional game is more exciting to watch, then more people will become involved in the game and our chances of Olympic entry may be enhanced,” Briars said.

“The feedback I have received from top players has been most encouraging, and that before a single ball in competition has been struck under the new system.”

If successful, the new scoring will be used for all PSA tour events.

Fuller television coverage remains elusive for the sport, however.

Squash’s most prestigious tournament, the British Open, has only ever been carried live once before - although it is returning to the BBC in a highlights package this November.

But in the main, pundits say the networks in Britain have shown no interest at all in covering squash and Sky Sports only broadcasts the game when tapes of major events are given to it free of charge.

Purchase life insurance online, promotion of the sport is getting better, television production is improving and a growing number of pros are investing in the game.

Nicol has set up the Eventis Group which has developed the English Open and the Canary Wharf Classic. Canadian star Jonathon Power is also staying in squash, with his clothing and shoe company, JP Sports.

Former Top 10 player Martin Heath, writing in Squash Magazine, says the game is at “one of the most exciting times in its history”.

He adds: “They [retiring pros] are not going into old colonial clubs and getting a coaching tenure but are involved in the promotional and commercial sides of the game.

“They obviously believe that squash will grow, and why shouldn’t they?”

The Brit Insurance Super Series Finals take place at Broadgate Arena in London, from 10-14 May.

Your suggestions:

‘U’ stands for unpossible, strangely enough the grade I got for my English exam.

martin, uk

U - Unlikely to get a job

N - Never get a job

A more preferable version would be:

S - sufficiently inaccurate

G - greatly inaccurate


Robin, Edinburgh

I guess ‘U’ stands for Travel insurance usa while ‘N’ presumably means ‘Nice try’. The obvious addition to the marking scheme would be an ‘M’ for ‘Misunderstood’.
Ian, Bristol

A few years ago I got an ‘N’ in Latin. I think it stood for ‘non possum scriptere lingua morte’
Kelcey Swain, UK

U = Universally unaccepted truth expounded

N = Neat handwriting nicely set out.

Maggie, uk

PASS - Poor Attempt by Stupid Student
Tony , UK

U and N are included as grades purely so that a student of mixed ability taking 5 A levels can achieve the anagramatic result D.U.N.C.E
Ricky, London

MNY - Maybe Next Year

NC - No chance

CAUTION - Complete and utter tosh ill-judged nonsense
Katy, UK

A = Academic,

B = Best of rest

C = C u at night school

D = Dole queue

E = E’s and Wiz

F = Failed to sit exam

U = University of life for this one

N = Not a clue

R = Reality tv beckons
Nick, England

U - Unutterable

N - Negotiable *wink*


J Bright, London UK

Fail indicator letters : MSS - translates as Mental Sabbatical Syndrome.
Derek Behan, Blackburn,Lancs

DYWFWT = Do You Want Fries With That?

Gerard Krupa, Coventry, UK

NLH - Needs Legible Handwriting, for those who wish to join the medical profession.
,

U: Useless

N: Nearly Useless
Mark H, London

E- Home insurance online owner purchase that lovely euphemism for ‘did not get to grips with the question’.
Basil Long, Notts, UK

5 A levels - grades SWIMS = Start Work In McDonalds Saturday
David, UK

S - Social Life
Matt, Notts, UK

“N” has to be for “Numpty”
Cameron Smith, Leatherhead, UK

like “A*”, we should have a “pA” or even “pA*” - the p stands for “plagiarised”
Dave Shannon, England

F (FUSP) = Failed (Future US President)

F (BSNC) = Failed (But Spelt Name Correctly)
P (BFB) = Pass (Bright Future Beckons)
P (BLTFTGO) = Pass (But Likely To Fail To Grasp Opportunities)
dave godfrey, uk

T - Trisha was on
Gary Savage, Burscough, Lancs

U - Unicorn a whimsical look at life that bears little resemblence to fact or reality.

N _ Narcoleptic A well rested or passed out participant whose brain has encountered more time immersed in parties and pints than lectures and learning.

A student of the pint myself.
William Westfall, Texas

FAQs about the Caption Competition

Link to this item

Link to this item

Link to this item

new-found cricket-lovers have a nasty shock in store for them (ie cricket is actually quite dull). On Tuesday, Julia Manning confessed her love for the sun, even though she insists she’s not addicted to getting a suntan. And who can forget last week’s article in which photographer Timothy Soar gave his tips for taking good pictures of buildings?

It’s all been very jolly. Much as we might try, the Magazine team will never know as much as this fascinating community of readers. So we’re throwing the doors open. If you know a subject well, or have well-considered views on a particular topic which you think you should share with your fellow readers, write us a brief note about it. Don’t write a full article, just give us a few lines. Alternatively, give us an idea of your sphere of expertise.

Include your contact details (e-mail address and daytime phone number), and send it to us at the.magazine@bbc.co.uk. Please put “Write for the Magazine” in the subject line of your e-mail.

Rapturous German welcome for Pope, 18 August, in which it says: “The Pope arrives in his homeland Germany on his first major foreign trip.” Hmmm, something not quite right there - does this mean I can call my holiday to Yorkshire this year a foreign break?
Spangle,
Birmingham

Re iPod users hearing damage warning. I’m sure almost identical warnings of dire consequences were given shortly after the release of the personal-CD player in the 1990s and the Walkman back in the 1980s, and we’ll probably be hearing it again in a decade’s time.
Jerry,
London

Is it just me or does the Jesus in a hawthorn tree image look more like Barry Chuckle than Jesus?
Stacey,
Bournemouth, UK

Monitor Letters, Wednesday: “How does someone like Victoria Beckham who has never read a book end up writing one (Learning to Fly)?” Guardian Letters, Thursday: “Victoria Beckham has never read a book? Presumably, then, this includes her own autobiography…” As Private Eye might say, just fancy that.

Lucy Dunn,
Nottingham

Rachel from Canada’s question about mouse mileage, (Monitor letters, Tuesday) she can get some idea of how far her mouse is going by visit this website at the University of British Columbia.
Join up and your mouse miles will be added to everyone else’s and the info used to power a table top train set. All that energy finally put to a good use. Wowzer.
Nigel,
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
BBC not responsible for external sites.

Imitation, they say, is the sincerest form of flattery. So what to make of a new column, launched in the Sun today, called Asbowatch?
Jeremy Weaver,
Surrey

Link to this item

Link to this item

Link to this item

Life savers or leg breakers, 17 August, which told of the dangers of mobility scooters. I have been a scooter user for 15 years now and would be very limited without it. I have seen many cases of incredibly stupid driving and have been involved with helping several folk learn to use their vehicle safely. As a result I wrote a HIGHWAY CODE for SCOOTER AND WHEELCHAIR USERS. This was launched at the House of Commons three years ago. I then raised with the then Minister for Transport various points about safety and good usage - including the following; compulsory assessment, compulsory insurance, registration of bad users, and regulation of manufacturing standards, such as lights, horn, visibles indication of whether you are going forwards or backwards, emergency hand brake, etc. I gave this and more to the minister - and he assured me he would look at it seriously - but that seems to have been that.

Miss Margaret Godfree
Leicester

So P.Diddy has changed his name to Diddy (today’s quote of the day). I can already see the sketch now.
“P. Diddy’s changed his name again”
“To what?”
“Diddy”
“Did he? Did he what?”
“Not Diddy What - Diddy. One word. Five letters. Period.”
Ed,
Clacton, UK

A new Hollywood film will be released later this month titled ‘The Sisterhood of the travelling pants’. Is this the worst film title in history?
John P,
Cambridge, UK

Reading Asbowatch makes me strangely homesick.
Dan,
Auckland, NZ

For all those Monitor readers crowing over how far back they managed to get in three or four clicks whilst “cabbaging” the BBC News website: do the rules not stipulate five clicks, no more, no less? It’s like connecting 5 in Connect 4 and claiming you have somehow won the game, for goodness’ sake! The rigidness of click allowance is what makes the pursuit so skilful. For further clarification of the rules, I refer readers to the recently-published “Cabbagers and Googlers Year Book (2005)”.
Matt,
London, UK

On Monday the lions at a safari park chasing Smart cars was a silly season story in the Paper Monitor. By Tuesday it’s on the BBC News website. By Wednesday it’s in the Daily Telegraph and on News 24. Someone’s obviously not reading the Monitor!
Becky,
Bristol, UK

Re Can’t read, won’t read books, 17 August. How does someone like Victoria Beckham who has never read a book end up writing one (Learning to Fly)?
Dave Godfrey, Swindon

Link to this item

Link to this item

Farewell blues, 15 August. As a child I used to read my parents’ Daily Mail and always read the Flook cartoon strip and grew up with him over the years. What a grand procession of characters, Flook himself, Rufus, Moses Maggot, Colonel & Mrs. American express travel insurance, Bodger and his fat sister Lucretia, oh I could go on! Sorry to hear that Trog is calling it a day and it is a shame that all good things come to an end, but what fun and laughter he created for us all to chuckle at for so many years.
Helen Matthews-King,
Southgate, North London

According to The 2012 marketing minefield, 16 August, some protected Olympic terms include: “Gold”, “Sponsor” and “Summer”. I predict a very hard year for jewellers, advertisers and travel agents.
S Murray,
Chester, UK

While reading Harold Evans’ article on intelligent design (, 16 August), I am reminded of Sir Isaac Newton, who once commented that the biggest victory of science over religion was when churches started installing lightning conductors.
Stephen Buxton,
Coventry, UK, thelbq.co.uk

If the average computer mouse travels 422 miles in its lifetime (Monday’s Daily Mini-Quiz), how do you know how many miles your mouse has travelled so far?

Rachel,
Manitoba, Canada

To Owen, who asked who Julie Burchill was (Monitor letters, Monday). She is a journalist who has written for NME and The Guardian, and now has a column in The Times on Saturdays, in which she practices her subtle art of writing columns whose central points you quite often entirely agree with, but find yourself nevertheless hating her after having read them.
Paul Taylor,
Leeds, UK

Link to this item

Link to this item

Link to this item

Monitor letters, 12 August) this afternoon I have managed to get back to 29 December 1997 in just three clicks. (”Tsunami clue to ‘Atlantis’ find” as a starting point.) Is BBC News trying to make things a bit easier for us by including the ocassional old link or did I just get lucky? Couldn’t get back any further as all links from that page referred to 1999
Steve Parsons,
Barton-Upon-Humber, England

I think the BBC not only endorses ‘Cabbaging’ but actively promotes it… clicking this week’s Faces of the Week over the weekend got you transported to an article first published in April this year.
Lucien,
London

Now that’s a neat trick. I click on Salman Rushdie’s face and he turns into Michael Winner.
Tim,
Bristol, UK

I am awfully sorry if I missed this most important piece of information, but would someone kindly tell me who the heck Julie Burchill is please (Monitor letters, Friday? I feel like I am missing out on something that looks as though it is becoming a serious thread. Perhaps one day her name will appear in the dictionary to describe a particular type of person.
Owen,
Herts UK

Last week’s Friday Objective reminded me of a proposal someone had written in blue paint on a footbridge over the M25. It’s been there for more than a decade, somewhere near the junction with the M1 - “Louise, I love you, marry me, Bob”. Does anyone know what happened to Louise and Bob? Did Louise ever notice?
Michael Hall,
Croydon, UK

Two out of your five silly season stories in the Paper Monitor today don’t exactly count. Surely Kate Moss’s sans-bra Tesco trip and Eva Longorio’s bikini are the sort of thing you can read in the papers at plenty of other times of the year?
Vic,
London

Terms & Conditions

Last week’s riddle was entitled Odd Numbers and asked you what sport should be added to the following group of words? “sexist sleevefish profusion delighted extraneous growth furtiveness nevertheless”

The answer is that each of the words contains an anagram of a number: extra(neo)us –> one
gr(owt)h –> two
nev(erthe)less –> three
p(rofu)sion –> four
slee(vefi)sh –> five
se(xis)t –> six
furti(venes)s –> seven
del(ighte)d –> eight

Therefore the next number would be nine and one sport containing an anagram of that is tennis. Who said riddle solving was an exact science?

Network problems are styming the Monitor’s efforts at naming a winner, but one will be added as soon as possible.

Link to this item

Magazine index now.

Read source on News - The Magazine Monitor