... to think that having FIVE holidays...

[LostMyIdentityAlongTheWay]

in a single year is taking the FUCKING piss?? As David Cameron has just started his fifth, I'd like to wish him heaps of shit and not a lot of fun. Seeing as he could barely be bothered to bring his to the yard when the rioting milkshake started (how gracious of him to finally turn up) this is just sickening.

People are KILLING themselves trying to make ends meet here (need I cite the AIBU stresshead threads about money, and the lack thereof..., I feel that pain!) and this is just ridiculous judgement on his part.

Or a total lack of.

ANd yes, I hate the fucking coalition, No, I think they didn't get a mandate to rule, I could boot Clegg quite happily up the arse - but these are all for other threads.

I heard about the five holidays on Radio 4 this morning and nearly spat out my tea!! Let's face it - he'll have at least one more before the year is out? He's entitled to a holiday, no question. But five???

Talk about how the other half live. Pah. Must be nice.

Not to mention him slumming it at the Bee Gee's Florida mansion.

YABU - why should he live in poverty when he and his wife can afford it. His wife is a millionaire in her own right ffs.

YABU. You would have had a point if there had been a series of luxury hotels/ millionaire mansions in the Maldives etc but a couple of long weekends with a couple of weeks in Cornwall and two short haul holidays is not that excessive.

Seem to remember the Spain holiday was the anniversary of their son's death, to give them grieving space. Don't want to comment on their hols otherwise, as its bizarre!

I would imagine he's put in a fair amount of overtime in the last couple of years - we should be grateful he's not claiming extra time off in-lieu ! Wasn't one of the trips for Sam's 40th birthday ? come on ! surely he should be allowed to do what he wants !!
My husband works from home (albeit in a slightly less prominent role :) ) and so for us, we often away when he has time off, just to escape the phone/emails etc.
GIVE THE POOR MAN A BREAK !!!

Despite all my lefty inclinations and the fact that I think Cameron is a weak PM who will sacrifice his principles to remain popular, I don't begrudge him his holidays. He has shown more empathy for the people than that idiot Osborne, who merrily swanned off on a luxury skiing holiday costing upwards of £10,000 at a time when many of the new cuts were introduced earlier this year. And at least Cameron has mainly tried to spend his spare cash in the UK and do his own bit to boost the economy.

Although I passionately believe in making the lives of the poorest and most vulnerable better before we start improving the lives of those at the top, I don't subscribe to the notion of equitable misery - i.e. if I'm having a shit time no one else should be able to have a nice one.

And I say that today as someone who's had a really bad day and cannot even find a spare £50 to spend at the dentist, let alone go off on holiday.

But when Blair was in power and taking holidays the economy was in a very different state of affairs.

If all was good with the UK, and employment was not at 2.5 million with poeple losing their homes, jobs and basic security then I'd say go away as much as you like.

But it's about sensitivity, and empathy.

I suspect DC has little of either.

Is that not Blair's legacy though?

YABVU. What a twatty post. Whatever else he is or he does, he is a father first, of young children including a newborn. Put your politics aside and see it from the perspective of his children, whom you're begrudging a couple of weekends and couple of weeks with their father who does one of the most stressful jobs in the country. You could say that he could stay at home. He lives at his workplace so he is bound to still be in work mode if he is there. Seriously, expend your energies elsewhere.

My next holiday this year will be my fourth!!

May try and fit another one in before the end of the year too.

I work for the NHS too by the way.

One of our nurses has been on holiday as much as me this year - is a running joke - believe me they are not all under paid and over worked.

Winston Churchill wrote loads of books whilst in office, painted and exhibited regularly, lectured, took long vacations regularly etc etc

Personally I am happy to see anyone who is having to make big decisions getting a break, however they need to.

(and by the way I have never voted Tory in my life).

Quite possibly HF, but I still would like to see some sensitivity from our leader.

Madame I am drawing from my own experience just as you are from yours. Certainly the areas I manage are over worked and over stretched. Lots of staff are emotionally and physically exhausted. I don't for one second believe that every nurse feels like that but I would wager a large proportion do.

foxinsocks Once you've taken days to cover children sickness, childcare emergencies and left a few for unplanned emergencies, there is no bloody way the average working couple could fit in 5 holidays (let alone the cost!).

What are you on about?
Me and dh, most of my colleagues, quite a few of my mates are all average working couples i.e moderate income (I'm a level 2 local authority worker). 2 kids of school age, mortgage, relatively debt free but lots of outgoings but I damm make sure I get my 4 or 5 holidays a year. They may be only a week at a time but I make sure I go at a Bank holiday to 'save' a day.

We are just savvy about where we go and when we go to maximise our hols!

YABU - we've had a week in Wales (half term) and 2 weeks abroad so far this year. I'd like to go away again, but sadly I think dh will put his foot down :(

Some people (like me) are really into holidays and getting away, and will save up/sacrifice other things for them. Others aren't so bothered. If I was PM I would blooming make sure I got away regularly, you'd go mad otherwise.

Should we all wear hair shirts now we're in recession?

I don't get why people think the pm should suffer. He not a poor minion like us mere mortals. He is loaded. He has never nor never will know what it is like to struggle with money. He has no concept of real budgeting and has no concept of the difference ten pounds can make to someone. Which is why rich people should never run a country. they can only see the world from one side of the fence. If I was as loaded as him though I'd be jacking in the job and having 52 holidays a year.

Tony Blair was just the same, always jetting off somewhere, usually at someone else's expense. At least Cameron pays for his holidays afaik - remember his wife has a highly paid job too. I'm not bothered tbh. They have a stressful life and need some downtime.

Upahill, I don't know anyone who has 5 holidays a year! We must just move in different circles!

I used about half my leave last year covering childcare issues/illness (we have no family help) - childcarer got mumps! - so I didn't have much left. Admittedly that was an unlucky year!

My sister had to go on holiday without her DH, with the DC, because his leave was cancelled because of the riots, he is a high ranking police officer. She said to me it was for the best because the situation on the streets is so tense he would have felt terrible if there had been any more problems while they were away. In Feb he had to fly back early from their 20th anniversary break because of a crisis at work. My sister's view was that he had accepted the responsibility when he accepted the job and this was the downside of doing something you love for a living and being responsible for the well-being of many others. It is a shame our politicians don't share the moral integrity of more 'ordinary' folk.

fox They aren't expensive hols - not like Cameron's anyway.

A week in France, Edinburgh Fringe, A week in Chamonix that sort of thing but carefully budgeted.

My mate who is a middle manager has her own place in Spain so goes about 6 times a year so I sometimes go with her.

I was nearly made redundant so I had come to expect the hols to end.

At the moment I am lucky with the amount of leave I have but often I have to go alone as DH is self employed and can't take the same amount of time off.

Hope your job stays safe upahill (and a few holidays alone sound quite fab ;-) )

I can't use my annual leave for unexpected child illnesses, etc. When the annual leave diary is released you pretty much have to book all your leave there and then otherwise the weeks get "full" and then you can't book any. Certainly no chance of any last minute leave as off duty is planned months in advance. So I use all my leave for holidays.

YABU

If you could afford it, you would too and you know it.

More than one of the 5 holidays has been in the UK. The rest in Europe I think.

It isn't as if he's flying all around the world staying in luxury mansions in the Caribbean as Tony Blair did.

I will have been away 4 times by the end of the year, although on pretty modest holidays.

I agree that people have the right to go on as many holidays as they can afford, but once they start sermonising about how "we' all in this together" between luxury breaks I think they should expect to be criticised. DC makes a song and dance of this whole "there's no them and us, only us" bollocks, then acts very much like "them".

Plus he's a twat.

I've had to cancel holidays before when things are going tits up at work, so should he. He has no apparent leadership skills, no apparent answer to what's going on in this country right now, no sense of duty and no sense of accountability. Twat.

If he can afford it, then why not?

I hope he goes on a very long holiday indeed.