THE WRONG ARM OF THE LAW ?

I see that a couple from Shropshire have been fined almost £1,000 for taking their children out of school during term time so they could have a family holiday together for the first time in five years.   Their `crime` was to do so without the express permission of the children`s school and thus they infringed recent legislation introduced by the Government.

Now on one hand it`s hard to disagree with the notion that it is wrong to compromise the education of children in such a way and yet on the other hand I remember very vividly how difficult it can be to afford a family holiday during school holiday times, simply because of the grossly inflated prices charged by holiday companies at those times.

We go away quite often and we rent holiday cottages and we have noticed the steep rise in prices from `term times` to school holiday times - summer, Easter, even half terms see prices almost doubled.   Quite simply, the holiday companies see the families coming, know they are ripe for being ripped off and proceed to do just that.

So, instead of having a law which penalises families  if they have the effrontery to have a family holiday during school time, why not have a law that penalises holiday companies from inflating their prices during school holidays?  They will kick and scream, of course, but all they have to do to maintain their profit margins is to even out their prices across the year.   Those like me wouldn`t complain about paying a little more if it meant that families could afford to go on holiday without compromising the education of their children.  Simples?