The government is telling us what to do? Oh noes! That's new.
OK, some of this stuff is new. And a lot of the new stuff has unarguably been handled clumsily at best and venally in parts. (I'm still sizzling over the Cummings business.) But it's also currently rather important. I could not give a pair of fingers if some people believe viruses ought to be allowed to sweep through the population, mutating at will, killing off the elderly and vulnerable and a few who are neither, leaving others potentially crippled for months, years or life; I don't. I would rather they kept their nasty diseases to themselves, thanks very much, and if some liberties must be suspended temporarily to get this ghastly disease under control, that's what must happen. A lot of the liberty we take for granted is in fact only possible because of restrictions on others. (Think of all the restrictions on driving for example!)
Yes, as a population we need to keep an eye on creeping authoritarianism (totalitarianism is a long way off, but we can do without its lesser manifestations too), and be prepared to man the barricades at the first whiff of the government hanging onto controls unnecessarily. I'll be right there with you. But swanning off to and back from other parts of the world is a luxury (for most, of course there are exceptions) that we can all perfectly well live without, and indeed the environment, on which, may I remind you, we depend for our very existence, will thank us for doing a lot less of it even in non-pandemic times. In fact the proposals being challenged on this thread don't even stop you going wherever you want to; they just set conditions. 10 years does sound way over the top, to be fair, and I agree that there is no point making a sentence tariff available if it is never intended to be used. But if people will not otherwise do what is right, sensible and safe without a deterrent, a deterrent has to be brought in and that's an end to it. I repeat, there are loads of laws we just accept because we're used to them which prevent us every day from doing things we might just feel like but which would have an adverse impact on other people or on society as a whole if we didn't.
It's a matter of balance. Too much freedom can be as dangerous as too little.
Too long already, but I just feel compelled to add that just because other people seem to be getting away with something, other antisocial behaviours are inconsistently punished, or the government are a bunch of muppets does not mean all restrictions are rubbish and can safely be dispensed with. As long as most people drive carefully the odd speeding maniac can probably manage to zigzag between other vehicles without actually killing anyone, although he still might. But when the rest of us think hey, I'm in a hurry too, I'll just do my thing like Mr Cool, that's when the really horrible pile-ups happen. As long as most of us get our offspring vaccinated, the few who can't or won't are very much less likely to catch those dreadful diseases, but once we all stop bothering, mumps and measles will be free to do their worst again. And COVID... well, you get the picture. It is nasty, and sometimes fatal. 2% is a small percentage but it's still a feckload of human beings. Do you really want to be one of them or do you just assume it only happens to people who aren't like you?