What I did on my holidays, by Tom Harris, aged 46½  

PARLIAMENT’S summer recess begins at about the same time as the English school holidays, so Scottish MPs with children of school age are often given time off in July, since our schools rise at the end of June and return in the middle of August. So, with the blessing of the whips, the Family Harris headed westwards earlier this month (with me contemplating that, had Labour managed to cobble together a Coalition of Losers with the Liberals and every other tiny minority party after the General Election, the resulting wafer-thin majority would have put paid to any such term-time jaunts). I had seen an advert in Sky at Night Magazine earlier in the year for self-catering holidays in a “dark skies” area in Devon; virtually no light pollution and the use of two reasonably large telescopes when the weather conditions make it worthwhile. The lodge was situated in the beautifully-maintained...