Dear Reader

WHERE do you stand on Joe Biden? No, not his reliance on reading from pieces of paper to remind him who on earth the person sitting with him in the White House is, but his jetting off to the sunny U.S. Virgin Islands while millions of Americans are shivering to death during the ‘blizzard of the century’.

Perhaps not the wisest of jaunts, given the criticism that Sleepy Joe hasn’t quite woken up to the daily concerns of the American electorate. Imagine if Rishi Sunak and his family were spotted sauntering along the beach in St Barts this weekend, just as strike action by various unions reaches a critical stage.

Trips overseas for political leaders are often fraught. Three years ago, Boris celebrated New Year in Mustique, unleashing an unseemly row about what the then Prime Minister paid for and what was a freebie.

A trip to the tropics spelled doom for James Callaghan in 1979. The country was crippled by strikes, while Jack Frost added to the misery. On his return from Guadeloupe, pictured, Callaghan never actually said: ‘Crisis? What crisis?’ but the inference was clear and four months later he was out and Margaret Thatcher was in.

Mind you, Winston Churchill was never averse to five-star living. Dozens of hotels around the world proudly advertise their Churchill Suite, charging a huge premium in his honour.

I worry more about leaders who seldom go on holiday than those who keep a bottle of suncream in their briefcase.

Distance from the job surely offers perspective — and it’s the same for us all. Get away and come back stronger. That’s not a bad slogan for what could be a defining year for travel — and we can only hope that, even with what’s going on in China, there will be no return to kneejerk testing and all the other restrictions that were in place before we were fully vaccinated. A Happy New Year from us all at Escape.