Politicians and their holidays

Nicolas Sarkozy’s holiday in America is a first for a sitting French president.  It’s certainly the first time that a sitting French President has holidayed in the US.  A few years ago American conservatives were boycotting ‘French fries’ in protest at Jacques Chirac’s anti-Americanism.  Restaurants in southern states chose to serve ‘freedom fries’ instead.  How long before French fries are the potato of choice for all admirers of the horse-riding, jogging Monsieur Sarkozy?

Politicians’ choices of holiday location have always interested commentators.  Tony Blair’s annual acceptance of freebie, exotic holidays caused fury at the Daily Mail.  Margaret Thatcher’s short breaks testified to her work ethic and her choice of Cornwall to her patriotism.  Who can forget those windswept images of her being pulled along a beach by an enthusiastic dog?

In recent days Gordon Brown has cancelled his holiday in order to micromanage his Government’s response to Foot & Mouth.  Is this sensible?  How long until our new Prime Minister is exhausted and making mistakes?

The Prime Minister’s choice of a UK holiday marks a contrast not only with Tony Blair but also David Cameron.  The Tory leader is enjoying his second foreign holiday of the year – in France.  I’m glad he’s gone ahead with his break.  He’ll be more refreshed for the challenges of the autumn. George W Bush makes a virtue out of taking extended holidays at his Crawford ranch in Texas.

Your discussion point for today: Do the holiday choices of politicians matter?

And, yes, this post is a silly season stocking filler of a post!

Comments

[William Norton]

To be perfectly honest: yes, I have completely forgotten those images of Lady Thatcher being pulled along a Cornish beach by a dog. What dog would dare? I thought Maggie usually went to Switzerland. Wasn't it Wilson who used to holiday in the Scilly Isles?

[Stand Up Throw Up]

The dog & Maggie film is hysterical...sadly there is no footage of her being chased by a police dog at Balmoral when she went for an "unauthorised walk" there.....

[Simon Chapman]

She went both to Switzerland & Cornwall William. In Cornwall she frequented Constantine Bay, where Denis used to play golf at Trevose. I vaguely remember some furore about her holding the flag for him whilst wearing a pair of heels on green. Real H.M. Bateman stuff.

How many other examples are there of politicians getting it wrong when they try to look as if they are relaxing on holiday?

John Prescott went on a taxpayer-funded holiday to the Maldives a few years ago (sorry, that should read "went to inspect the impact of climate change on fragile ecosystems about the world including coral reefs"). I am pretty sure that in one of the photographs at the time the begloved Prescott hand was to be seen hanging onto a piece of coral. As any novice diver fule kno, you should never deliberately touch coral. For that reason many dive outfits actively discourage diving gloves in warm waters.

I think Tim should also post a little more about where political bloggers go on holiday. We have had a few articles from his & Sam's busman's tour around the world, but no holiday snaps as yet.

For myself, I am off to Southwold for a long weekend now. Camping, because my great aunt cannot fit us all in her cottage. Have a good few days.

[Tony Makara]

Politicians might to well to follow Friedrich Nietzsche who would often go into a field, sit for hours undisturbed, and allow creative thought to overcome him.

[Serf]

How long until our new Prime Minister is exhausted and making mistakes?

Why should he worry. He's got away with all his mistakes over the past decade.

I find it funny that politicans try to be "of the people" in all their choices except holiday destination.

Why should the Med Holidaying electorate expect their leaders to stay at home?

[William Norton]

Actually, the high heels on the putting green incident does ring a bell, but the dog escapade still doesn't mean a thing. If this is on film has anyone put it up on You Tube? Can we have a link? This is the sort of pioneering conservativism we expect from CH.

Tony Makara: didn't Nietzsche go mad in the end?

[malcolm]

Do the holiday choices of politicians matter? No.

[TomTom]

Funny I thought this thread might be about the nation's schoochildren returning to school long before their legislators are called in from the playground; and why the United Kingdom Parliament has the long absence from its Chamber of any assembly in the advanced world.....even the Lords returns before The Commons.

Charles I repeatedly tried to rule without Parliament and caused himself great distress - in the era of One Man One Vote however - Parliament frolicks in the climes of Tuscany and Brittany while the Executive chugs along towards the abyss

[Nick]

I'm not fussed about where they go on holiday. It's not as though they can't afford a decent one.

Of note, though, is Gordon Brown's intended destination was close enough for him to dash back to London to take control as soon as the germ of a crisi appears; is this really necessary in the age of email, live satellite link-ups and video-conferencing? Or is it all about presenting an image of him as a 'man for a crisis'?

I am worried by the fact that MPs have such a long summer break, and when they come back they've not got long before the annual out-of-season jaunt to some seaside resort.

[Tony Makara]

William, You are quite right Nietzsche did go insane in the end, however the cause was something organic rather than something strictly psychiatric. He contracted syphilis as a result of a dalliance during the Franco-Prussian war, or so it is rumoured. The unabashed egocentrism is Nietzshes later works is all too indicative of a mind in the process of fragmentation.

[Ken Stevens]

Tony Makara | August 10, 09:57

"..Friedrich Nietzsche who would often go into a field, sit for hours undisturbed, and allow creative thought to overcome him."
I tried that but the Missus told me to get on with the weeding.

I think it is the nature of politicians' holidays that matter, rather than the location. What could be construed as "freebies" in some celebrity's villa do not enhance the image of the politician.

The Maggie precedent of several short breaks rather than one long one is a good idea for some personality types as a whole, as well as fitting in with the particular realities of Prime Ministership.

[powellite]

What really gets me is the "prime minister bravely cancels holiday to come home to take charge of crisis."

Why do they do it? Do they imagine that the country can cope without them in charge? What about the turn of the century, when PMs went on holiday for the whole summer without anything going wrong? the world won't fall apart if they head off for a couple of weeks...

[Richard North]

Nice one, when the papers are full of the growing crisis in southern Iraq and the alarming casualty rate amongst our troops - complete with quotes from your favourite shadow defence secretary. That is obviously far too trivial for a serious political blog.

What do you do for an encore - the swimwear politicians buy?

[Will James]

"The Prime Minister’s choice of a UK holiday marks a contrast not only with Tony Blair but also David Cameron."

The Prime Minister's choice of holiday also marks a contrast with himself. He usually holidays in the United States, so setting up shop in Dorset and Scotland is another piece of 'spin' that we'd been promised was now consigned to the dustbin of history. Just a shame no-one in the press has bothered to point this out.

[George Hinton]

I was under the impression that a grateful nation provides Chequers to the PM so that he has somewhere to holiday and entertain. It should therefore be used for that. Blair regrettably was seduced by Cool Brittania and needed to be hugged and his ego massaged by the rich and famous. Result: total demeaning of office.

As for Gordo micro-managing the F&M outbreak, is this not rather futile. What's the point of having ministers if you're going to supplant them. Are we seeing the first signs of Gordo's need to control and manage all things, the first stages of dictatorship perhaps?

Never mind, we can be assured that the F&M outbreak will spread, DEFRA are useless, and Gordo can carry the can. AHH BLISS.

[Michael McGowan]

They don't matter, Malcolm, as long as they pay their own freight.....something the Blairs chose not to do.

[Andrew Lilico]

Politicians should go on holiday, and they shouldn't return for anything short of earthquake or invasion. The fact that they do so return, and that papers call on them to return, is all part of our political society's cult of personality. Don't they have deputies and officials to look after things whilst they are away? Are their deputies really so incompetent that they can't manage minor-to-moderate "crises" for a few weeks?

[Oberon Houston]

Brown's favourite destination is Cape Cod. He used to fly out there with old carrier bags full of books and when not reading then he was pumping Democrats for ideas. Not sure if he's still going there now though.

Wasn't Blair fond of Cliff Richard's and Branson's islands?

[Henry Mayhew - Ukipper / delusional conservative]

Norfolk is nice and you can hang out with the Prince of Wales at Sandringham.

[fairdealphil]

Attacking the PM for cancelling his holiday - in England - to deal with Foot and Mouth is not just silly, it's a sign of your increasing desperation...

Surely, it was the right thing to do.

Imagine the Daily Mail headlines had the Prime Minister decided to stay in Dorset!

They probably would have been more scathing than had he gone to Rwanda while his constituency flooded...

[Oberon Houston]

I don't think that was an attack on Brown, but an observation that he is possibly going to burn out if he keeps up this pace of involvement in everything that is going on.

[Scotty]

fairdealphil, Gordon Brown will always be relied upon to turn up after the event if there is a good photo call in it for him.
In fact Brown tends to wait and see which way the wind is blowing before he makes the *right* decision to visit an area.

David Cameron went to Rwanda to keep a long planned engagement to commemorate the genocide. He has also been to Afghanistan in recent weeks where our troops are fighting a war.

Brown on the other hand has not been as quick to emphasis the appalling situation for our troops in Basra or Afghanistan. he appears happy to leave decisions, announcements of intention or any real debate or recognition of our troops to sometime in *October*, does not seem to be a priority in his first for weeks despite the deteriorating situation there!!
Still I notice that the MOD had time to slip out a new gagging order to prevent ordinary soldiers from speaking publicly without consent. I find the timing of this news in a week there is renewed focus on the shocking increase in casualties just a little cynical to be coincidence!

[Michael McGowan]

Scotty, ignore fairdealphil: clearly another ZanuLabour clone of Lord Haw Haw with time on his hands to post indiscriminately on this site, Guido and Ian Dale.

[Hmmmm]

The world's stockmarkets are plummeting. Where is the Conservative analysis and comment?

Does George Osborne care? He is heir to a family fortune worth hundreds of millions.

This is not acceptable, holiday season or not.

[Scotty]

Hmmmmm, in your haste to take your daily pop at the shadow cabinet you fail to balance this by asking that question of ALL our politicians, in particular Darling and Brown.

I would also suggest that in fairness a calm and measured response from all our politicians has to be the priority during these unstable times in the financial markets.

[Sally Roberts]

Malcolm @ 10:25 - I agree wholeheartedly with you!

Tim and Sam - I know it's the "Silly Season" but really, couldn't we do any better than this "bottom of barrel scraper"?!!

[TaxCutter]

Its not the holidays that politicians go on that bothers me, its the fact that they might come back

[Theresa Green]

The Conservative Leader Dave is away to France how spiffing. Hoorah!! hope he comes back with some fresh ideas he desperately needs them! How about some fresh thinking on Grammar Schools or Europe....

[TomTom]

What about the turn of the century, when PMs went on holiday for the whole summer without anything going wrong?

Not clever really. Wars always began in August or September after the harvest had been gathered in.

Hitler regularly used to arrange his crises for Friday evening when Whitehall was dispersed to the country estates - it is funny how every escalation - even the invasion of Poland took place on a Friday with Saturday spent in Paris and London working out how to avoid aiding Poland

Considering the amateurish nature of British Government landed us in two world wars, I prefer Brown to holiday in Dorset

[The Huntsman]

Any self-respecting Tory politician ought to be on a Grouse moor next week.

[Richard Carey]

How about some fresh thinking on Grammar Schools or Europe....

You've already had some fresh thinking on those areas, Theresa!

What I suspect you're really saying (and please do correct me if I'm wrong) is that you don't agree with the results of it and would like the old ideas to be brought back again. It's not going to happen, is it?

[Hmmmm]

Scotty, you would expect silence from the government not the opposition. It is the opposition's duty to criticise the government's handling of the economy.

There is no evidence that there is any economic expertise on the Conservative frontbenches. Boy George has no real world experience, just CCHQ. John Redwood has been sidelined to a token policy group chairmanship. He would ten times better.

[TomTom]

Any self-respecting Tory politician ought to be on a Grouse moor next week.

Posted by: The Huntsman |

Why ? Do you want to shoot them ?

[TomTom]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Marie_Lustiger

Sarkozy interrupted his vacation to attend the funeral in Notre Dame Cathedral for Cardinal Lustiger before flying back to the USA to meet with GWB

[Jason Smith]

"And, yes, this post is a silly season stocking filler of a post!"

Yeah because there's nothing more important going on huh?