Josianne
Irrespective of whether Boris should be away on holiday rather than leading from Number 10, the answer to the question, "Who is paying for it?", is the owner of course. It's certainly not a peak week, and half term bookings are a few weeks off yet. The property would be standing idle anyway and charges like utilities, taxes and insurance are paid annually. It makes no real odds.
Someone mentioned cleaning, laundry and bed making. Really? We allowed friends to use our properties free of charge, but how churlish would it have been to say, "give us £100 for the cleaning, oh yes and £60 for the linen, and £20 for the logs you use." We even left the car keys for them to go out and about.
Whether in Boris's case the owner is out for something else in return, we don't know. Maybe he is just a good mate.
Josianne, why would it be standing idle? It is currently half term holiday in several European countries, and Goldsmith rents it for £15.000 a week.
Parliamentary rules request that all gifts are registered and vested/interests declared. He has recently give Goldsmith a peerage, for instance. And as said before, there are still many questions un-answered about 'gifts' of previous exotic and very expensive holidays- including one in Umbria with Russian Oligarchs- which was a huge safety concern for UK at the time- and now linked to Tory party funding.
But the main question remains- which responsible PM goes off on his jollies in the middle of a very serious crisis- especially as he has had quite a substantial number since becoming PM.
Do continue defending him, whatever he does, or more importantly, does NOT do ... If you do not believe the country is in a very serious crisis- then ... wait and see.
