The absolute magnitudes of Cepheids and the extragalactic distance scale

It is pointed out that a Cepheid period-luminosity relation with a zero-point from Hipparcos trigonometrical parallaxes and a consistent reddening system zero-point implies that some recent estimates of H-0 based on the Cepheid scale should be increased by similar to 8 per cent. This result avoids using the distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) as an intermediary point but is not significantly different from the result obtained by Feast & Catchpole via the LMC. A number of other issues are discussed, including metallicity effects on Cepheid distances and reddenings, and the age of metal-poor globular clusters.