On the Tuscan trail

It is reassuring to know that despite the Labour government's attempts to woo the Liberal Democrats by redrawing the political map there are still small but crucial differences between the two parties.

Take Bath's Liberal Democrat MP Don Foster for instance. As education spokesman Mr Foster found himself unable to oppose much in the government's Teaching and Higher Education bill, including controversial plans for the abolition of maintenance grants.

But when it comes to his choice of summer holiday destination Mr Foster draws the line. True, he is off to the Tuscany so beloved of Tony and Cherie Blair but says Mr Foster: "It's a different part of Tuscany, to the north. It's the less trendy part." Fine, except that one of the beauties of Tuscany is that nowhere is particularly far from anywhere else.