A friend of mine was once giving the commentary on a tour bus around Cambridge when a lardy American lady suddenly interrupted him in a puzzled voice: “Hey, where's Canterbury Cathedral?”

Given the reputation of US tourists it is hard to imagine anyone looking for intelligence and leadership would begin their search on a chartered jumbo just arrived from JFK. Why, then, are we supposed to believe that Sarah Palin should be disqualified from being US Vice-President just because she hasn't done London, lunched on the Champs Élysées and watched the sun go down over the Taj Mahal?

Admittedly, I was a little surprised when I read that the 44-year-old Palin only applied for her first passport last year, and since then hasn't exactly filled its pages with stamps: a trip to Ireland, mentioned by an aide as an example of her foreign policy experience, turned out to consist of her sitting on a plane while it was refuelled.

But the more I think about it, the more I think: “So what?” Let's face it, if the extent of a candidate's global travels was what made a good political leader, then we would have elected Judith Chalmers Prime Minister years ago.

I have nothing against people taking exotic holidays, but the idea that somehow they give you insight and wisdom denied to people who stay at home is a nonsense. You don't learn about Indian politics by snorkelling off Goa or about Australia's economy by lounging around on Bondi Beach. I wouldn't mind betting that if you were to stand in the arrivals hall at Heathrow and ask each passenger the name of the prime minister of the country from which they had just returned you would get a success rate of less than 5 per cent.

If Sarah Palin does become Vice-President, one valuable thing she could bring to the job is to prune severely the number of foreign trips made by world leaders. Many of them are nothing more than junkets, carefully timed to sidestep difficulties at home. Remember how Tony Blair used to jet off to go riding with his friend Dubya whenever things were looking rough at home? The bigger the scoundrel, the more inclined he is to resort to foreign travel. You certainly couldn't fault Robert Mugabe for the number of the stamps in his passport: he used to pop up in London every five minutes.

If I were Sarah Palin I know how I would bat away gibes about my unworldiness. “No, I haven't been to Tajikistan,” I would say. “But I do know how to operate video conferencing facilities and I'm going to save US taxpayers a fortune by talking to world leaders from right here in Washington.”

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