UK to close all travel corridors from Monday

[halcyondays]

Thank goodness. At last they’ve seen sense.

Checking 300 or so passengers individually would also take hours and they do not have the manpower nor time.

No it wouldn't take hours. They do it in Spain for every single incoming flight. I was towards the back of the queue flying in in December, it did not take longer than 20 minutes to do the whole plane. This included QR scan, negative Covid test check, temperature check.

There were 3 members of staff present. One handing out forms to those that hadn't done the QR online, one scanning the codes/forms, another in full PPE ready to do further checks on those with a raised temperature.

It's like boarding a plane from the gate doesn't take longer than 15-20 mins, and they actually have to stop and look at your passport and visa to check it matches your ticket.

Emergencies aside, what kind of idiot is traveling at the moment anyway

DH flew long haul for work yesterday. Its not even anything that MN would consider remotely essential.

No one checks people quarantining so its entirely on them behaving responsibly and sticking to it. DS stuck to it but not a single contact.

Emergencies aside, what kind of idiot is traveling at the moment anyway

There is another thread where a couple travelled abroad over Christmas for a holiday, visited an elderly relative without isolating, and gave them covid.

For every one you see on here, I dread to think how many others there are.

But why bother, don’t one in 30 in London have it? There’s no enforced quarantine, people are still travelling anyway, seems pointless at this very late stage.

VegemiteIsToasty

I think to try and keep the new Brazilian variant out

@trappedsincesundaymorn

I can't see why we don't adopt the Australian approach. Escorted off the flight, onto a coach, taken to a hotel, told to stay in your room for 2 weeks and you have to pay for it yourselves.

Can you imagine the whinging?

Can you imagine the whinging?

It would be for all travellers from overseas regardless of whether they are coming home, or visiting. It may make people think twice about coming here at the moment so they either don't make the journey or suck it up. The choice is theirs.

Several of my colleagues returned to their home country for Christmas and not one of them had their Fit to Fly documentation check when they landed back in Heathrow. Neither have they been contacted once in the last two weeks

I too am in favour of the Australian system. Not only will it stop people passing anything in while travelling from their airport to their home but it will also bring much needed business to airport hotels that are pretty much lying empty right now

Several of my colleagues returned to their home country for Christmas and not one of them had their Fit to Fly documentation check when they landed back in Heathrow. Neither have they been contacted once in the last two weeks

That's been part of the problem with the UK system throughout the pandemic...lots of high profile announcements made for political reasons but little effort and not enough resources put in by government agencies at the shop floor level to ensure compliance.

Hopefully the only really new aspect to all this, the PC tests, will perhaps discourage non-essential flying. Problem is if checks on paperwork aren't done by Border Officials inbound at the UK border then once again the UK is left with compliance largely only being monitored and enforced by the airline/ferry/train staff.

..and of course if it becomes apparent that despite yesterday's announcement no effort is going to be made to change the way everybody who is supposed to quarantine is monitored...........

Looks like many of the UK tabloids this morning are spinning the "UK Borders closed" nonsense.. Shame they haven't read and digested this:

www.gov.uk/uk-border-control

Meanwhile elsewhere in the press some slightly more considered analysis..

"Travel corridors will be axed in effect from Monday morning. The corridors, which exempted inbound travellers from the requirement to quarantine for 10 days, may make little practical difference to the airline and travel industry in the current context."

www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/15/questions-over-timing-uk-travel-corridors-closing

Oh good. I always wondered why they didn't do this in March!

They did, I think in the last week in March, and in April. If you remember there was news reports of people stranded and the only flights coming in were freight and people being repatriated. The site Flight Radar was near enough empty for a while.

What I remember was just how many people were abroad at the time. People on holiday in Spain, Italy, Greece etc or in the east and so on and people working abroad

@Flaxmeadow

Oh good. I always wondered why they didn't do this in March!

They did, I think in the last week in March, and in April. If you remember there was news reports of people stranded and the only flights coming in were freight and people being repatriated. The site Flight Radar was near enough empty for a while.

What I remember was just how many people were abroad at the time. People on holiday in Spain, Italy, Greece etc or in the east and so on and people working abroad

There was a big reduction in flights running into the end of March and on to April as other countries introduced restrictions on travel but UK Borders weren't closed, never have been.

I know with absolute absolute certainty that right at the end of March 2020 it was possible to arrive at a UK airport as a foreign national and walk into the UK without anything other than the normal passport and customs checks.

People were travelling into/out of the UK by air in April. It was difficult, but that was down almost entirely to the fact that restrictions put in place by foreign governments made it uneconomic for the airlines to continue on full schedules. If you needed to get somewhere for legitimate work purposes and/or needed to get repatriated it was hard to get a flight, but people did it.

... and of course if it becomes apparent that despite yesterday's announcement no effort is going to be made to change the way everybody who is supposed to quarantine is monitored ..... [hmm}

I don't know about "if" ... unless there's a massive shift in drive and ability, which seems unlikely at this stage, I'd say it's pretty well a certainty. Doubtless we'll be treated to a few Nightingale-esque photos of sad faced folk at "quarantine centres", but otherwise forget it

As someone once wrote, "In politics it's not the truth which matters; what counts is that which appears to be true to the gullible"

I don't know about "if" ... unless there's a massive shift in drive and ability, which seems unlikely at this stage, I'd say it's pretty well a certainty.

Absolutely agree, hence the

As someone once wrote, "In politics it's not the truth which matters; what counts is that which appears to be true to the gullible"

..and it seems to work..witness the many "Borders closed" headlines and responses to the same in some places this AM....despite the reality.

Witness the many "Borders closed" headlines

As posted last night, I was only waiting for them

Ditto the thing about "new strains"; it's lost now among all the carry-on, but last spring there was a pretty good coloured illustration about how various ones were changing and spreading - only now of course it's all supposed to be something new

I might lack the science to understand these things in full, but at least I can still recognise manipulation when it hits us in the face

Does anyone really want to travel here from abroad???

Some have to do so for work.

Does anyone really want to travel here from abroad???

Yes, I teach postgraduate students and many of them are internationals. About half are already here and another quarter or so intend to come in the next few months.