Travel broadens the mind
As Rudyard Kipling famously said “What knows he of England who only England knows?” So with the Easter break and then the summer holidays fast approaching now is the time to go abroad and have a good look around.
Increasingly I am seeing reports from all and sundry about how embarrassing and eye opening it is to return to the UK after a trip to Europe.
There the trains work, the health service works, food and drink are cheap, the streets are clean, the infrastructure works, traffic jams seem infrequent, the water is clean and to cap it all UK passport holders are stuck in long queues.
Then come to back to the UK and notice what we have become used to. Like a frog in a slowly heating pan of water we have not noticed what has changed around us.
Why do we allow NHS waiting lists of 7 million plus, when did you last see your GP, why do we have to abandon high speed rail links and then divert the money to filling in potholes, why is everything so dirty, why are schools falling down?
If you can afford it take a foreign holiday this year and then come home and see us as others do, as visitors here do, with your eyes open and with a fresh mind.
We have got too used to this but our neighbours visit and are shocked, we should be to.
Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.
By Jonty Bloom Media