Latest Moan From You and Me 2024

I think people should be able to enjoy their holidays wherever and however they want, with the caveat that they respect the local environment, people and culture.

There is a lot of social pressure and dare I say, snobbery, around travel. I myself used to be guilty of it. I once refused to attend my best mate's stag weekend for no other reason than it was at Magaluf. But as I've grown older and developed the ability to think for myself rather than going with what's fashionable at the time, I've realised that if some people want to go abroad to drink too much beer in the sunshine, or find Blackpool in the sun, or whatever they want to do, then as long as they remember basic manners and courtesies and show respect where appropriate, then that's fair enough.

 

I believe each local authority will be able to implement it as they wish and I also believe it will affect people living in Wales eg if I went for a holiday to north Wales I would have to pay it too.
I understand the Welsh Government has been advised (I don't know by who) to be guided by how the EU does it.
It will obviously not be chargeable to people visiting relations or going on day trips, at least I don't think so. It would not be possible to do that.

 

I would agree with you, @Clueless 1 v2, if it were not for the environmental damage caused by masses of people shifting location for a week or two regularly. On a planet with a climate crisis, that is unsustainable activity. Air travel needs to become a rarity.

What people choose to do with their leisure time has to adapt to the needs of the moment. I can't have a bag of peat compost. So be it. But a flight to New York would do more damage in a couple of hrs than my 2 bags of multipurpose compost per yr would do in the remainder of my lifetime.

 

I live in Wales, have no car and go on coach day trips in the summer, so maybe the cost of those will soar

 

I think if you boil it down its a case that every country is just out to make more money,, and that is a good way of doing it.
Let's face it, if it puts people off travelling then it will be counterproductive.

 

Couldn't agree more @ViewAhead. I've never been on a plane and don't have a car so don't feel too bad about the occasional climate-risky buy

 

We could end up like people 300 yes ago, live and die and never leave your village.

 

Maybe! But, before we get to that, why not have an air mile allowance? You could even allow those who don't want to use their allocation to sell their miles, giving them an income stream. At the moment, the wealthiest 5% create nearly 50% of the carbon pollution. This would force them to be more responsible. If they all want to take private jets to Davos every January, that would be their yr's total gone.

Won't happen. Nothing that negatively impacts the elite ever does.

 

I will give you a flip side.

My kids care about the environment. They know all about climate change, from what they've been told.

Last year I took them on their first overseas holiday to Spain. On the coach between the airport and the resort, we saw parched farmland. Crops left to wilt in the fields. They got to see public showers and water stations along the promenade, most of which were turned off. And signage mostly in Spanish but occasionally in English just asking people to save water, because they didn't have much.

We all enjoyed our holiday. But my kids now know a lot more about climate change. It's no longer something they've been told about. They've seen the parched crops. They've since watched documentaries on YouTube about the increasing desertification of Spain and they understand the impact that will have not only locally, but to us in damp grey Britain when those crops they saw wilting in Spain don't make it to our supermarkets.

I'm not saying travel is always educational. But as soon as we stop mixing people about, we start isolating people and making everything seem like someone else's problem.

And if someone wants to fly away for a week, who are we to judge? Let me give you another example. In our household, we have one car. It's got a sewing machine for an engine. If I don't have to use it, I don't. We often walk it. My house is, by my choice, all electric. I had all gas appliances decommissioned then the gas supply cut off. I have modern IR heating. I do my best to minimise food waste and am always on the lookout for ways to reduce our eco footprint. But starting last year, which was our first holiday abroad since before we had kids, we decided to aim for one overseas holiday per year. Does that make us bad? Are we worse than someone who doesn't go abroad, but who heats every room in their house all the time and drives one of their multiple cars to the corner shop? I'm not judging anyone by the way. Just calling out that it's not as simple as just jumping on the latest bandwagon and choosing a subsection of society to judge based on the trend of the day.

 

It's not just holidays either. How on earth politicians can justify flying thousands of miles to (usually) exotic locations for a summit on the state of the planet defeats me utterly. In this day and age there are any number of means of holding conferences without moving from the office. It's pure hypocrisy.

 

They're on holiday. All expenses paid. Just wrap it up under some work related heading then stick it on expenses.

 

Personally, I think Cumbria is a prime example of a place needing to tax tourists and holiday accommodation. The impact on housing for locals, water supply and sewage treatment (lack of it) are having a devastating effect on locals and their environment not to mention all the loons tearing round the countryside at silly speeds in unsuitable cars.

We did beach holidays when Possum was small but in Italian resorts where there were just enough Brits for me to get a Times to read each day to pass the time. I don't really like sand and salt water on my skin. I gave my air miles to @Busy-Lizzie a few years ago and have no wish to fly again. Quite happy to potter about for a few days but somewhere accessible by car or train.

I'd lke to explore more but am really too busy at home. Spain would be lovely but not the obvious tourist spots and not in peak season.

 

So why do my DNA test results (I did on Find My Past) show some of my ancestors came from Iberia and some from Orkney

 

Well obviously one of your relatives had a bike.

 

@Clueless 1 v2, I don't disagree with anything you say. My point is we need to cut down on travel, not remove it altogether. The current levels are damaging the planet and damaging communities where housing is short because of Airbnbs taking residential homes off the marketplace. I don't see this as jumping on a bandwagon and vilifying one section of society.

I think holidays abroad, with all the pressures these create, should be seen as a precious commodity, to be savoured.