In 1997 I watched in amazement at the landslide victory of one Tony Blair, as he lead his Labour Party to the biggest victory that any UK Labour Party had ever seen.
Tony Blair lasted for the next ten years. Boris Johnson was less fortunate.
Unless you've had your head buried in the sand for the last few weeks (and frankly I wouldn't blame you if you had), last week Boris stepped down as British Prime Minister after just three years in the top job, although he will stay on in a caretaker role until a new leader is elected.
Dogged by allegations of incompetence his own party turned on him, as the British Conservative Party does when it wants rid of its leader.
Boris Johnson, Prime Minister
But why does that matter for you, the frequent traveller? Actually it matters quite a lot.
Over the next few weeks the British media will be full of quotes from the wannabe new leaders as they compete in hustings and to grassroots Conservative Party members for their vote to be leader. As I write this article, no fewer than nine Tory MP's have indicated they want to be next PM. Taxation will be a key battleground - the UK currently has its highest level of taxation for more than 70 years.
But one of the things you won't hear much about is the tax you pay on travel. And it's big. Really big. In the most extreme cases, the hard pressed traveller can be paying up to £176 in taxes alone, for a one way fare. That makes life difficult for airlines in a very competitive market as this is one charge that no airline can get around - even the most efficient airlines can't get that fee down by cutting away costs, albeit no low cost airline would be required to charge that level of 'Air Passenger Duty', as it's known
But tax is just one element of why the next PM is important to travel...
One candidate vying to be next Tory leader and therefore Prime Minister is Grant Shapps. More widely recognised as the Transport Secretary, he's a figure that divides opinion.
At the height of Covid, I was abroad, in my favourite Canary Islands. I recall sitting on a patio at one of the top hotels on the Island, the Gran Melia Palacio de Isora, I was sipping my G&T on the patio of the executive lounge - a perk when staying at red level. Suddenly, everyone around me went white and looked into their phones in horror. Grant Shapps had spoken. What he actually said was that the previously agreed 'travel corridor' to the Canaries was being terminated. In itself, not such a big deal as these variations were common at the time. But he went one step further; he told all Brits that anyone currently in Tenerife, for example, had to return to the UK within just 36 hours, or face a two week quarantine. Yikes. Thus ensued a mad rush to find every last available airline seat back to the UK as few people could serve a two week hostage situation at home (work, shopping, kids to school - to name a few potential problems).
Grant Shapps, MP
Me sipping G&T before Shapps spoke
OK..so we know how tax and political decisions can severely impact travel..what do we do?
Well, you know some will say that travel isn't going to be a key topic of conversation with any of the wannabe leaders. Many restrictions on travelling abroad have now been lifted for the formerly locked down Brit. But ironically, travel is still very much in the media and still for all the wrong reasons.
One of the problems throughout Covid is that airlines let a lot of staff go. That has come back to bite. Most UK airports have had a tough time as travel-starved Brits flocked back to their favourite European hot spots and with it, putting immense pressure on airports who are starved of Home Office cleared staff.
So don't write off any of the wannabe leaders having to face some tough questions on how they're going to deal with what some describe as travel chaos - and tax will inevitably creep in to that conversation "what am I getting for my £176?", type of thing.
In 2022, Boris is on his way out. But travel problems certainly are not. The next PM will have this on the radar.
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