Humbug about Home Holidays

The Prime Minister, David Cameron, has suggested that his compatriots might follow his example and holiday in Britain this summer, though this is a little disingenuous as his wife Samantha is so heavily pregnant that she can’t fly abroad at the moment. Anyhow, I do find the moral grandstanding by politicians of all hues around Europe on the joys of home country holidays at this time of economic recession to be largely humbug. It’s actually more expensive to spend a week at a decent hotel in Cornwall than it is to go on a package to a decent hotel in Spain. And what if all the foreign tourists who have been flooding into Britain again this summer (one can barely move for young Spaniards in central London!) decided they would all stay at home as well? Travel is part of economic activity and that is something that governments should be encouraging. Moreover, travel broadens the mind, which is good for people of all ages. I confess it is maybe cheeky of me to comment on this matter, as I travel so much for my work that when I do get a summer break, like now, I spend in firmly at home with the cat, working on the computer or reading in the garden.

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