Book your foreign holiday but dream on about actually going

The Boris Johnson government's predictions about booking foreign holidays is getting more and more like Alice in Wonderland. The latest version of the can-you-can't-you, will-you-won't-you, should-you-shouldn't you plan to go on holiday this summer is about as straightforward as a bend in the road. Yes it is possible that you can start to plan a holiday but you shouldn't really truthfully expect to actually go on it. What?! The UK government had been expected to announce this week its much-heralded traffic light system which would reveal to us humble folk which countries have been categorised as safe to visit and which definitely not. So green for go and red for no way. That would have been terrifically helpful while browsing through the brochures. I say, let's go to Italy, two weeeks in Tuscany. No, can't be done. Italy is red. How about Malta? Malta is green, so off you go. You see how easy it would be, although not every mortal soul can grab a hotel room in Malta presumably. But no traffic light system was announced. All we got was a hint that it might be possible to go to a beach overseas in the summer but for any degree of certainty we all have to wait until the first week in May now to find out whether our chosen location is green, red or amber. There are rumours that the ony countries that will be given the green light will be Malta and Israel. So no France or Italy or Spain or the US. Green means you can visit a country without having to spend 10 days in quarantine locked away in some ghastly govenment-approved hotel on return, but will still require Covid tests before leaving and before returning. My answer to that is, what the hell is the vaccination programme all about if not to make you relatively immune from getting Covid. So if you have had your two doses why can't you get on a plane and go the hell anywhere. No wonder one of the big travel companies has announced today that it's not going to take any bookings until late June. What's the point when there is so much uncertainty about whether a country is going to be designated green, amber or red? So just remember the advice of the government: book your holidays now but dream on.