The Royal RV

As world leaders head off on holiday, pundits and columnists eagerly analyze their choice of destination. What does it tell us about President Bush that he revels in the heat of Crawford (even if only for ten days this year)? And how does all that brush he clears grow back so quickly? Tony Blair’s penchant ...

As world leaders head off on holiday, pundits and columnists eagerly analyze their choice of destination. What does it tell us about President Bush that he revels in the heat of Crawford (even if only for ten days this year)? And how does all that brush he clears grow back so quickly? Tony Blair’s penchant for borrowing villas from the rich and famous, most recently Cliff Richard’s pad in Barbados, provides British journalists with irresistible copy about the PM's supposed celebrity fetish. But what are we to make of the fact that King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, as The Spectator reports, owns a Winnebago camper van? Is the Kingdom finally on the move? Is its ruler restless? Or is he just harking back to his Bedouin roots?

As world leaders head off on holiday, pundits and columnists eagerly analyze their choice of destination. What does it tell us about President Bush that he revels in the heat of Crawford (even if only for ten days this year)? And how does all that brush he clears grow back so quickly? Tony Blair’s penchant for borrowing villas from the rich and famous, most recently Cliff Richard’s pad in Barbados, provides British journalists with irresistible copy about the PM's supposed celebrity fetish. But what are we to make of the fact that King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, as The Spectator reports, owns a Winnebago camper van? Is the Kingdom finally on the move? Is its ruler restless? Or is he just harking back to his Bedouin roots?

James Forsyth is assistant editor at Foreign Policy.

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