Author who left wife and child in NEW ZEALAND and came to Scotland for lock down

[ssd]

I mean is he fucking nuts???

He left NEW ZEALAND to come here???

Apart from breaking lock down, obviously, who the hell would leave New Zealand?

Fud.

There's really no reason to think the people of Skye are any more unsafe with him around than without him. I don't think we can say that with certainty, Judy. He changed planes in LA, passed through Heathrow, used a taxi to cross London, got into a borrowed car and must have stopped for petrol on his way from London.

I suppose this has touched a nerve because of my mum and dad. They are on another Scottish island, surrounded by holiday homes, and are extremely vulnerable. There must be lots like them on Skye.

It's winter over there which means it's even more boring than it normally is. I don't blame him for leaving. It's his business anyway.

I find people who think rules don't apply to them pretty tone deaf and the lack of awareness what money and privilege brings shows how out of touch they are with real peoples lives.

I can't feel sorry for either of the adults involved. They have marketised their relationship in a mutually narcissistic way and shared more detail than many wound dream of. Now the dirty laundry is laid bare - not so fun. It's their son I feel sorry for.

ffs so theyve not even split up they jsut fancied a change it gts better

It's winter over there which means it's even more boring than it normally is. I don't blame him for leaving. It's his business anyway.

Really, I would have thought being in lockdown for the forseeable future in the UK is more boring than being in NZ, where everyone is out and about! Once again another sad MNetter who has little to do but criticise another country.

BBC story here

Basically the entitled twat said he went to Skye so he could be in the same time zone as friends so he can talk to them more.

The lockdown measures are actually useless unless the police can tell him to go to his first home.

NZ is amazing in the winter, so many opportunities.

Why did the police need to physically visit someone who is self isolating for 14 days after international travel? Wouldn’t it have been better to ring him or email?

Probably to appease the frothers

Probably to appease the frothers

This. The pitchfork wavers will be able to settle down and feel self-righteously smug once they feel that he's be appropriately dealt with.

More likely to send a strong public message to others that they shouldn't do similar.

But if they’d rung him the police could still have said that he’d been “spoken to “.

Just seems daft that if they think he’s done something risky regarding virus exposure they then expose a police officer to that risk who will then go round the community exposing others. All while the author bunkers down not seeing anyone.

I imagine the police did what delivery drivers are doing, knock on the door and then stand well back on the path till it's answered. No risk of infection. They knew where he lived, they didn't necessarily know his phone number.

3 homes! NZ, Skye and main home USA. Anyway this sounds pretty bad - does he think masks stop you passing the disease to others? They don't in most cases which is one reason the UK has not required them by law.

"'Masked and gloved'

The 59-year-old said he flew "masked and gloved, from empty Auckland airport" to Los Angeles.

He then caught a British Airways flight to London before borrowing a friend's car and heading for Skye.

"I drove north, on empty motorways and then on empty roads, and got in about midnight, and I've been here ever since," he said.

"I needed to be somewhere I could talk to people in the UK while they and I were awake, not just before breakfast and after dinner. And I needed to be somewhere I could continue to isolate easily. "

"I drove north, on empty motorways and then on empty roads, and got in about midnight, and I've been here ever since," he said.

Presumably it doesn’t occur to him that all the airports, roads and motorways are empty precisely because every one else is avoiding unnecessary travel - unlike him.

Such breathtaking arrogance

Why did the police need to physically visit someone who is self isolating for 14 days after international travel? Wouldn’t it have been better to ring him or email?

Since mid March, it has been routine for Police Scotland to make such visits in the Highlands. They will have had reports that a previously-empty second home was now occupied. Until they turned up and meet Neil Gaiman, it could have been someone else.

Our communities are vulnerable and NHS resources are sparser than in London or even Inverness. The virus has still to begin to peak here. The Police have been actively encouraging all visitors and second home owners to go back to their main residence where possible.

He 'needed' to be somewhere he could speak to people entirely at his convenience not a pesky times like before breakfast and after dinner? That's such an important need. Way more important than his son's need for a father.

I really, really despise narcissists.

I wonder how easy it is to get your shopping delivered when you rock up in Skye? He's not elderly or vulnerable, if he was he wouldn't go through an airport or two by choice.

"would people here say the same of a British woman married to a British man in NZ if their marriage broke down, no, stay there, you can't come back to the UK?"

They would if she left a child behind

Whatever the sex of the parent, it is very odd to leave a child behind, knowing you might not be able to see them for several months,
instead of renting even ½ hour away

He had plenty of money to make better choices, rather than abandoning his child in another country.

More likely to send a strong public message to others that they shouldn't do similar.

To stop the deluge of pEopke decamping from NZ returning to Skye

He's a wealthy man who does what he likes. I suspect he was rather taken aback at anyone questioning him doing exactly as he liked.

Weird that he was completely unaware of UK lockdown rules, specifically the differences in lockdown rules between England and Scotland, where apparently he has his primary residence. You would have thought he would have been keeping up with the goings on in Skye (of course he was aware, rules just don't apply if you've got money).

Anyway, he's got his own way and plenty of people soothing him and telling him he did nothing wrong. Nothing to see here (and to be honest, no-one would have been any the wiser if he'd had the grace to keep quiet about it).

No Ariadne but plenty of people have a second home on a island/rural location and they are not supposed to be going to them.

(I don't have one I hasten to add, if only)

@JacobReesMogadishu presumably to check that he actually was self isolating.

It's occurred to me though that as a couple they spend a lot of time apart so in reality one or other of them is often living without their son.