The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Maybe we should loosen the leash a bit– would we really be any worse off ?
IWRITE from the warmth of southern France and don’t mind saying so while you in Scotland also bask in un-northern sunshine. Thanks to kindly godparents, my children and I revel in the comforts of a wellappointed stone cottage, with mosquito nets at the windows that keep out the bugs but not the beautiful views.
My husband, meanwhile (and for reasons best left unexplained), camps nearby. This is his choice and he is happy. We are all happy. Extremely so. We are lucky to be here, of course, but also to be able to design our holiday to please ourselves, to guarantee the necessary rest and (hopefully) rejuvenation, and to keep family relations on an even keel.
Not everyone enjoys such freedoms and particularly not all politicians, the important ones, that is.
Although Tony Blair, when he was prime minister, managed many trips to Italy, and the occasional excursion to the Caribbean, courtesy of Sir Cliff Richard, even he was forced to ditch Umbria for Cumbria at times.
It is accepted practice that while power opens doors it closes departure gates.
This is tolerable for a premier or a busy minister, who spends his or her working days hopping on and off planes, often to exotic locations.
But what about their families? All year they put up with the frequent absences, cope with the children alone and suffer the long lens of publicity. The very least they deserve is a decent break away from it all in the summer. But their pleasure must be curtailed by political protocol.
This is made a little easier for those whose parents own land. Samantha Cameron may yearn to escape Britain in August but can probably resign herself to Scotland, where the Downing Street entourage is said to be heading, because it is familiar ground.
Her stepfather’s acres in Jura are a favourite haunt, or were in the days when David felt at liberty to shoot stags there.
It sounds more relaxing than Mr Cameron’s predecessor’s holidays. Gordon Brown, who before he was prime minister used to swan around Cape Cod (playing tennis, would you believe), quickly became a holiday-free zone.
Parties at Chequers were said to have carried on without him, and although he got as far as Dorset once, his spin doctor Damian McBride went too, they lasted one night and never took off their suit jackets.
When normal people – voters – cannot afford to venture far, it is unseemly for their leaders to globe trot, surf boards, security detail and private secretaries in tow.
Alex Salmond knows this and, anyway, loves Scotland too much to leave it, especially with a referendum on independence looming.
If he happens to find himself in America, watching golf, say, it is for work and he has travelled there in our name.
But though Banff and Buchan may seem restorative to him after so many business jaunts abroad, his long-suffering wife Moira must put her foot down when he retires and insist on using up the millions of air miles he has collected in office.
There are politicians who misjudge their importance and stay home unnecessarily and there are others who, believing they can move about unnoticed, get on planes to Australia.
The Labour MSP Alasdair Morrison could have got away with abandoning his constituents in the Western Isles for pleasures Down Under when he was a minister in Jack McConnell’s government, if only his portfolio had not included tourism.
He didn’t lose his job, though he did eventually lose his seat, which suggests that the public can be unforgiving when politicians enjoy themselves too conspicuously. It never used to be like this. Stanley Baldwin, while he was prime minister, would disappear for months on end to various bits of France and Churchill sailed his own yacht around the Mediterranean when he was First Lord of the Admiralty.
Politicians then were less scrutinised and, on the whole, more respected than their contemporary counterparts. They could pretty much do as they liked - and did.
Our more accountable lot pay the price for that free rein, but maybe for one month each year we should loosen the leash.
Would we be any worse off as a result?