With the budget now less than a month away much attention is turning to taxation and how much the Chancellor will hike our taxes on 20 March. My particular focus in these Huffington Post columns has been on the effect the damaging Air Passenger Duty is having on...

The past 24 hours have been dominated by media and political response to the Chancellor's Autumn Statement. This time last year, air passengers learned of the Government's intention to increase the tax on flights, Air Passenger Duty (APD), by twice the rate of inflation - a rise that gave the...

The impact of people power is often exaggerated in British politics. With some politicians receiving close to 1,000 emails each week from members of the public, post-bag campaigns can be easily overlooked, as constituents' concerns are responded to through standard letters and generic statements that merely welcome the debate or...

The summer recess is normally a quiet period for MPs. Their offices slow down, they take holidays and politics seems slower paced. The extraordinary success of the Olympics may have taken the focus of the media off Westminster but that does not mean that MPs have gotten away with a...

The words sounded good and the sound bites were well delivered. There is no doubting that the presentation of this Budget was one of Mr Osborne's best. Despite the heavily leaked contents the Chancellor's reoccurring theme of making Britain a competitive place to do business was well communicated and peppered...

Today the government launches a multi-million pound advertising campaign encouraging you to stay at home this year and not go abroad for your breaks. Each year millions of us take holidays abroad, millions of us stay at home too. But we don't choose what break is best for...

In the next few months, VisitEngland will spend some £4 million encouraging Brits to holiday at home instead of going abroad for their summer break.

The logic seems sound at first-glance: the domestic tourism industry is having a tough time thanks to the VAT rise and economic turbulence facing...

Last week on this blog I speculated as to why the government was not publishing the details of the reform of Air Passenger Duty alongside the Autumn Statement. Could it be because the documents were not ready, I wrote? Could it be because they needed more time to finalise their...

Today, the Chancellor has ignored the voice of tourism, of British business and of ordinary travellers. Buried in his Autumn Statement are plans for a double-inflation rise in Air Passenger Duty (APD) which will hit the UK economy in 2012 and beyond.

On this site yesterday, the chair of...

The hullaballoo surrounding a certain witness at this week's Home Office Select Committee hearing and the highly-trailed backbench debate on fuel prices obscured an equally important debate taking place in the Commons yesterday on the aviation sector. As family budgets tighten and British businesses look for competitive advantage over European...

It's the season for political leaders to address their party faithful. And while today the media's sights were trained firmly on the Prime Minister's speech and its aftermath in Manchester, it's worth mentioning another global leader who also addressed a crowded conference hall this week. Yesterday the CEO of (one...

In a few weeks' time the Chancellor is likely to confirm that next year he will introduce a double-inflation rise in Air Passenger Duty (APD) - the tax levied on all flights in and out of the UK. However, a new poll of MPs published today by ABTA as part...