easyGroup’s easyCruise

Low-cost everything specialist easyGroup has drawn journalists’ attention to the idea that, for the price of the most expensive 17-day cruise aboard Cunard’s newly launched Queen Mary 2 (that’s a whopping &£27,000), the budget-conscious holidaymaker could, in theory, spend two-and-a-half years aboard one of easyGroup’s easyCruise ships. The Diary feels that a more apposite comparison would be this one, from the Government’s Social Exclusion Unit: ‘It is estimated that the average cost of keeping a person within prison in 2001/02 is &£37,500.’ Anyone got David Blunkett’s phone number?