Covid: A break from foreign holidays could be 'so bracing' (and fun) – Scotsman comment

Professor Jason Leitch’s warning to civil servants against booking a foreign holiday for anytime soon – possibly not until next year – will be a shock to many of us.

We have become used to the idea of relatively cheap holidays in the sun in places like France and Spain and there are some who quite regularly go much further afield to the likes of the Maldives, Thailand and beyond.

However, in a video of Professor Leitch answering questions from civil servants, the national clinical director advised them against getting their hopes up about any such travels this year.

It is a blow to those desperate for a break, and also says something more generally about how quickly life will return to normal.

But, on the holiday front, it was not so very long ago that we were quite content with annual trips much closer to home, to seaside towns like Elie and Crail in Fife, islands like Arran, or the more southerly delights of places like Blackpool, Bournemouth and Skegness. The latter sought to draw in visitors with its “jolly fisherman” and famous slogan that “Skegness is so bracing”, which is one way to describe the chilly waters of the North Sea. The Mediterranean Sea it is not.

However, generations enjoyed themselves and still do, and those of us who have got used to warmer climes can do so again when the Covid lockdown restrictions allow it, while also helping our beleaguered tourist industry get back on its feet.

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Professor Jason Leitch suggested foreign holidays may not be possible this year (Picture: Scottish government)

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