LIKE a thief in the night, without telling anyone who didn’t need to know, I went on holiday recently. And I went abroad — to Spain. You may wonder why I am being so furtive and secretive about something as innocent as a holiday.

Last year there came a turning point, doubtless driven by “scrounger” and benefit programmes on TV and sensational Daily Mail and Express headlines about large families on benefits going on holiday.

My working poor family had saved like mad for a holiday in Scotland. Naively I expressed my delight on social media about how as a carer, I was looking forward to taking our sons (including our autistic son) to a Scottish island, and how the whole thing was a big adventure. 

Doubtless there will be families out there with members who are carers nodding their head in agreement with me. A break or a holiday is a big cause for celebration. It’s a change of scenery, a chance to relax for a few days: hell, if you’re lucky it’s a bit of sunshine too to get you through our long British winters.

But then a nasty online troll took it upon themself to ask why I “deserved” a holiday, as a working poor person claiming working tax credit. This person spent five months getting in touch with my followers on Twitter, telling them I had the audacity to go on holiday to Scotland despite being a “benefit claimant.” 

The persecution got so bad I had to threaten the troll with police action if they didn’t give up the constant abuse. Blocking them didn’t help one bit as they just followed the people who followed me and kept up a constant stream of abuse against me, all because of this one holiday.

Wiser this year, I sneaked away with no photos on social media or the usual status updates to friends and family about how lovely our holiday was. As I write this, I keep thinking “How have we come to this?” Are the poor so “undeserving” we should be bullied and ashamed into not going on holiday or keeping our holiday plans secret?

I live in a seaside resort town in north Wales. We welcome a vast array of holiday makers from every conceivable class and background. Go to the train station and see the excited faces of young children arriving from the big cities like Liverpool and Manchester at this time of year and you know what a holiday means to them. 

I spoke this week to a young single mum with two children who had saved with her local credit union for her one-week break in north Wales. She works part-time and this one week break has been talked about and planned since this time last year. She has gone without so the kids have the time of their lives at the local holiday camp. Precious memories and photographs to be looked back on in future years. Yet she told me that there is indeed a new element of fear in telling too many people or broadcasting the fact on social media she was having a holiday.

It seems she didn’t want neighbours knowing she was on holiday as she was already having the finger pointed at her as a single mother. Are her children and the children of the poor and working poor unworthy of a holiday? We’re not even talking of a month in Barbados here but a good old-fashioned bucket and spade trip in Britain.

My own holiday to Spain was blissful. But I still felt unable to join in with the usual pictures of hotel pools, sunsets on the beach and exotic food like so many others flaunt on social media. Yet my holiday was the break I needed. Oh how those days of sunshine have invigorated me, given me strength, revitalised me, allowed me to feel normal.

Do I deserve a holiday? Hell yes! Holidays should not now be the preserve of the rich and middle classes, with the “undeserving” poor thinking a trip to the foodbank is a day out. Why should working-class kids not have some kind of childhood holiday to look back on? A trip to the seaside, seagulls, ice cream, buckets, spades and bunk beds in a caravan, eating chips in the rain and for one week having no worries or pressure at all? 

It’s hard enough surviving through these savage government cuts, hearing rhetoric thrown at you for being on a benefit of any kind, caring for a disabled relative or being disabled yourself, without having some kind of break away from it all.

It’s almost as if society now wants to dehumanise the poor and vulnerable by denying us things ordinary people take for granted.

On my return I vowed to visit local places of interest (which are abundant in north Wales) for day trips during the school summer holidays. As a member of the National Trust I am guilty of not exploring the historic treasures on my doorstep, but always going further afield. 

Last week I visited a local castle and this week a country house and gardens. However, while I was walking around with my family two things hit me: the first was how most people were white and middle aged or elderly, and the second was the lack of working-class families there. Instantly I knew it is cost-prohibitive. It’s not the National Trust’s fault — it has to maintain the buildings.

But Labour got it right when it opened up museums for free in the previous administration. Why should trips to our historic castles, stately homes and the like be confined to a rushed day out on a school trip? Local children often only experience their local history through school visits.

It’s high time these places were open for all to enjoy without worrying about cost. At least make it free for under-18s so children can visit and enjoy local history. As a socialist, of course I would say it is vital for children to see how servants were treated and how the grandiose rooms for lords and ladies were very different to the sparse servants’ quarters. We need young minds to explore our culture, heritage and history. Cost shouldn’t prevent that.

It doesn’t matter whether you are rich or poor. Everyone deserves time away, a break, a holiday. No-one deserves to be demonised for that.

• This article first appeared at mumvausterity.blogspot.co.uk.