I don’t know if it is me who is losing the plot or others, but what is so confusing about booking holidays? Anyone who follows the news must know by now this government hasn’t got a clue what it is doing, so why look to them to see if there is any chance of having a holiday this year?

I would like a holiday this year, but I don’t know if I can have one or not, so I am not going to get all flustered about it. However, if I were in a position where I needed to book a holiday now, the last person I would look to for guidance, is former pyramid salesman, Grant Shapps.

What I would do is this. I would look for the kind of holiday I wanted, then I would email them to find out what the situation is. An email that would go something like this.

Good evening,

I was looking with some interest, at your holiday packages for the summer of 2021. Obviously, at this stage, we are all still in the dark with regards to Covid-19, which, I assume, means that holidays are subject to cancellation in the event of the virus still not being under control.

Could you please inform me of how your cancellation policy works with regards to Covid-19?  This can then aid me with deciding whether to book a holiday now or leave it until later in the year.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Many thanks

Bob Lethaby.  

If you are a bit thick, you can steal that if you want; just remember to change my name to yours. That’s all there is to it though, isn’t it? If people have enough ingenuity to go on radio talk shows to ask a ‘travel expert’ what to do with regards to booking a holiday, surely, they can send an email to a holiday company that is ATOL protected?

I heard someone say today, “People just want certainty”.  Well, if that’s what they want, they’ll just have to wait. There is still an average of 800 people a day dying here on Plague Island, so until that is solved, nothing is certain. For starters, what sort of country wants a load of disease-ridden Brits turning up on their doorstep?

I gave up amateur epidemiology a while ago, but it does appear that we are coming out of this mess slowly. However, until the data comes in from the mass vaccination programme showing we are on the road out of this fiasco, there isn’t any man or woman alive who can offer certainty with regards to holidays. You shouldn’t need a travel agent on a radio talk show to tell you that.

No wonder Brits abroad are widely regarded as being thick as mince.