Plenty to enjoy in good old Blighty
WHY is there a passionate desire for a holiday abroad?
We are coming out of a pandemic that has taken thousands of lives and caused untold misery. I would have thought survival would be enough of a high.
Besides, we’ll soon be able to meet friends again, visit relatives, go to the pub or restaurant, socialise and take holidays in the UK, while still protecting against a Covid relapse that would damage an already fragile economy and heap more stress on the amazing National Health Service.
Yet some politicians and families, airlines, travel agents and the intrepid, are riled that the Government is not relaxing rules swiftly enough to allow a return to Greek odysseys, Spanish siestas and long haul adventures.
Maria and I have driven across Europe, been to far flung places, and for years were obliged to visit America every year for family reasons. The first time I went, in 1976, I soon got over the fact that everywhere looked like a Starsky and Hutch film and found it about as interesting as Bognor, and we all know what George V said about Bognor when it was suggested he go there to recuperate.
The finest holidays we ever had as a family were at Abersoch on the Lleyn Peninsula in Wales. So why slog all the way to the West Coast of America?
Britain has beautiful places to visit in the summer and the ale is better, too. And did I mention the cuisine? All right, the fish and chips.
Instead of moping about not being able to go to Croatia or Cyprus, try the varied delights of our home nations for culture, stately homes, history and the seaside, from Edinburgh to Phwelli to Cleethorpes and yes, to Bognor, a delightful seaside Sussex town.
George V didn’t know what he was missing.