Thinking slightly ahead, with a winter break next year, one cannot fail to see the advertising campaign by Ryanair boasting flights as low as 99p each way, running up until the end of February next year! Obviously this isn't on all flights, but with a small amount of browsing on Ryanair.com you can quickly find some unbelievably cheap flights to various destinations in Europe. Or can you?

Overwhelmed with the fact that I can now travel to France, Spain, Germany and Poland for less than the cost of an hour in any city-centre car park, I am torn with which location to opt for. I go for Poland, and why not - I've never been there and travelling broadens the mind and all that guff! I progress to the payment stage and it then informs me that there is nearly fifty-pounds of tax on top of the barely a pound advertised price.

Now, if I am wrong then I shall eat my hat, my socks and my old upper school rugby top! Tax is a percentage of a price that supposedly pays for something else, i.e. the services of your country, the Member of Parliament's vast expenses scheme, and the bailing out of banks that have proved that they have the financial savvy of a newborn child! Assuming a flight is 99p, and tax is £50 then 5000% is the extortionate tax rate applied to your previously desirable number. Even mortgage rates have never been that high! So why and how is this allowed to happen?

Even a clever advertising campaign or gimmick that uses taxable allowances and benefits to bring discounts to consumers is legitimate and welcome, but something that is blatantly a trick and a con in order to get your attention to buy is immoral and one would have thought, illegal, in this country and every country - even Belgium!

There are more hidden costs, should the £50 tax not scare you away when you confirm acceptance to this criminal and elusive fee; you pay to take on luggage, as an extra! Other than business travellers, which this offer is not in any way aimed at, who would go to France for the weekend and not take any luggage? So another eight pounds on top of your fifty-quid tax and your amazing, tantalising offer of a flight to a European destination for 99p is now nearer to a hundred pounds than it is to the starting advertised price!

A true example of rip-off on multiple levels!

Who is Ryan anyway? I don't think anyone would bother saving him if he were James Francis Ryan, I know that for sure. After such propaganda campaigns shouting about flights costing less than a litre of Diesel, who can blame them!