David Speakman is absolutely spot on in his assessment of the way ABTA has tried to replace real consumer protection with nothing more than smoke and mirrors.

Unfortunately this is not the only symptom of the malaise which has befallen ABTA in the last few years. The pipeline money protection it offers to operators has suffered a similar fate. Retail members whose cheques bounce are no longer considered in breach, operators are expected to take responsibility for money paid to retail members even when it has been demanded months in advance of the time it is due to the operator and companies whose membership is terminated when ABTA is already aware that they are in breach of operator payment terms are not considered to have failed.

It seems that not only has ABTA retreated to the point where it is little more than a government lobbying machine, but too much contact with the politicians has also resulted in ABTA executives learning to speak their twisted language.

Successive governments have avoided grasping the nettle of consumer protection for the past twenty years but now that ABTA has also decided to duck its responsibilities, it is time to implement Speakman's call for trust fund protection for all funds paid in advance of the delivery of the service.

Paul Sawbridge, Managing Director, Alfa Travel Ltd ABTA V2560

So a fight rages over ABTA protection does it ? It's a shame that such a fight didn't take place at ABTA Towers when the vote was cast last week. As I recall there were around 25 or so people attending in person and according to one correspondant 'only' 200 or so votes in favour of the motion. If the bed banks and all those so vociferously against this issue had bothered to attend ( or even vote ) then the result may have been a bit different. It's likely that the motion would still have been carried but at least we would have had some interesting dialogue between the affected parties on the day that may just have influenced the way we voted. In the event we had just one vote against ( by a very embarrassed delegate who doubtless had been told which way to vote ) and one abstention. It's all very well ranting in the press about this issue after the event but if you feel strongly about anything at all and you have the opportunity to influence the outcome with your vote then you must do so at the time and not complain about it afterwards if it's not actually what you wanted, It's called democracy !!