Mr McDowell explained: “We want a scenario where people can have a pizza with a pint instead of drinking themselves senseless. That needs a cultural shift in this country in our approach to alcohol consumption.”. Italy went to the polls yesterday to vote in a bitterly contested referendum which has pitted the secular state against the power of the Catholic Church to determine social policy. But now an Irish minister, alarmed by what drink is doing to the country’s young people, is attempting to revolutionise his nation’s fabled drinking habits.

The Irish pub is a celebrated institution around the world, inspiring theme bars from America to Australia and Argentina. The government wants to ensure “that young people do not drink themselves into oblivion, and that we tackle the negative social and health effects of the Irish love affair with alcohol”.The caf?ars will be limited in size and obliged to sell food as well as drink.Mr McDowell has, however, run into stiff opposition from government backbenchers, many of whom are themselves publicans. Asking a broker to sell your shares would incur a dealing fee and, while this probably won’t be more than £10, that’s still a high price when the value of the transaction is small.Hand them to your chosen charity and you won’t have to pay anything at all – no broker charge, no capital gains tax (if you’ve already breached your £8,500 limit). And you can also claim income tax relief.If the charity won’t accept the cost of selling the shares for its own gain later on, give them to ShareGift, a free service for donors.

One BA source said: ” If a BA plane went down and a pilot was working 50 per cent of the time a couple of months out of training, we wouldn’t come well out of subsequent investigations.” However, a spokesman for the airline said that managers had no intention of changing its recruitment procedures and that the company was optimistic that it would win the appeal.. “What right has an employment tribunal to pronounce on a safety issue in aviation?” he asked.The Civil Aviation Authority allows airlines to set their own rules on the matter provided they are seen to be safe, he noted.Ms Starmer, who is married to a BA captain, is pregnant again and, as part of normal procedures, has been taken off flying duties.At the employment tribunal, Ms Starmer’s union, the British Airline Pilots’ Association (Balpa), successfully argued that BA had produced no evidence to prove she was incapable of working half-time. The rule was based on safety considerations and had nothing to do with sexual discrimination or any desire to use a pilot to the maximum extent to recoup the cost of training, he said.Senior office-holders at the blue-chip company, including Sir Rod himself, were duty-bound to follow the advice of their own senior flight crew, he said. Sir Rod, who is to retire on 30 September, said the company’s regulations were drawn up on the advice of its senior pilots.

The newly knighted chief executive of British Airways has warned that a sex-discrimination case won by one of the company’s pilots will deter airlines from taking on female flight crew. “When the darts strike, a five-second, 50,000-volt charge causes the suspect’s muscles to contract uncontrollably.” Some racegoers may suffer the same reaction when their next credit card bill arrives.. “50,000 volts to zap security threats,” it trumpeted over a report about the issuing of Tasers to North Yorkshire Police at Royal Ascot. On the eve of the event, the Evening Press took a more hard-nosed approach.

It’s swings and roundabouts for us.”The local press has worked itself up into a fine old tizzy. Yorkshire Life, never a journal to underestimate the importance of the social round, panted in its June issue that “Royal Ascot is the event Yorkshire has been waiting for”. We’ve got orders for around 20 Ascot hampers at up to £8 a time, but the majority of my regulars are leaving York for the week. Our beer is our champagne.” Extending his welcome, Mr Collinge said he had stocked up on lager and “lemonade tops” to “make our southern brethren feel at home”.Lynn Henshellwood, whose delicatessen on Newgate appears in Rick Stein’s Guide to the Food Heroes of Britain, expressed misgivings about the effect of Royal Ascot on the local economy “The hamper trade for the race week has been brilliant. After all, the city is capital of a county famous for its dourness.