The discrepancy between the long distance scale as derived, e.g., from Hipparcos-based distances to globular clusters via main sequence fitting to local subdwarfs, and the short distance scale as derived, e.g., from the absolute magnitude of field RR Lyrae stars via statistical parallaxes and the Baade–Wesselink method, could be accounted for if an intrinsic difference in luminosity of about 0.1−0.2 mag were found to exist between horizontal branch (HB) stars populating the sparse general field and the dense globular clusters.