AT TIMES LIKE THIS...

This is a photo I took last October when we were staying at Trebetherick on Cornwall`s north coast.   It`s a tranquil scene, quiet weather, an almost deserted beach and just a glimpse of Pentire Point to tempt the more adventurous.  What could be better for getting away from it all and allowing yourself to be both captivated and captured by the elements of nature, the absence of pressure and the demands of time?

And I see today that Prime Minister Dave Cameron has had to leave Polzeath, Trebetherick and Daymer Bay behind and return to London to be seen to be directing the UK`s response to the latest in a string of appalling events in the Middle East.   Now, he must have wanted the job and he got it and for some years now he has been involved with a seemingly endless list of crises, some financial, some political, some diplomatic, some simply borne of the world in which we live.  

No wonder he likes to get away with his family and where better to unwind than on the Cornish coast which is clearly one of his favourite destinations.  It might be rubbing it in to announce that at the end of next week we`ll be heading for the same area, doing the coast path walks and just enjoying being where we like to be, doing what we like doing. And of course I have the benefit of knowing that it`s highly unlikely that my visit there will be interrupted by being recalled to sort out some great issue of state.

I never thought I would admit to this, but at times like this I might just feel a little sorry for our Prime Minister having to leave his family and the tranquillity of Trebetherick behind and I wonder if he ever thinks whether all the trappings of office are worth it and whether he would rather be watching the sun go down over Stepper Point with John Betjeman`s words lulling in his ear:-

And in the shadowless unclouded glare

Deep blue above us fades to whiteness where

A misty sea-line meets the wash of air.

It may be a forlorn hope that the trials of the world might subside enough to allow our Prime Minister to resume where he was forced to leave off....but I hope so, not just for his sake but also the rest of us.