Here's Simon with the travel ...

Should have been in Edinburgh today.

The Scottish Licensed Trade Association has invited representatives from the European hospitality sector to advise them on how the smoking ban could be changed to accommodate smokers and protect jobs "without exposing staff or non-smoking customers to tobacco smoke".

The seminar, I am told, will comprise leading members of the SLTA and licensees from the Netherlands, Croatia and Hungary who have practical experience of systems that can control tobacco smoke without resorting to a comprehensive ban.

Sounds good, so I was going as an observer. Unfortunately all flights in and out of Scotland have been cancelled until two o'clock this afternoon because of the alleged threat of volcanic ash. (Thank you, Iceland!)

Trains, meanwhile, have been hit by yesterday's storms in Scotland and the north of England. I did think about driving, but a 14-hour round-trip for a two-hour meeting?

All is not lost, though, because a colleague has made it Edinburgh (from London). It wasn't easy, though. X reports that she caught the last BA flight out of Heathrow last night but it had to land at Glasgow.

Passengers were then driven by coach to Edinburgh and she arrived at her hotel at 2.30am.

Some people will do anything to discuss the smoking ban!

See: SLTA to hold talks on smoking ban (Evening Times)