Holidays abroad are illegal from Monday

[Dugee]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9389921/Ban-leaving-UK-amid-new-coronavirus-laws-force-week.html

Along with any other unnecessary travel abroad.

@WiganNorthWest

All this talk of “just a holiday” and selfishness shows a real lack of empathy. Just because you have no links with other countries and are happy to stay in the UK doesn’t make you a better person (and isn’t necessarily safer). People who work in the travel industry and those with families/people whose home is abroad have every right to be upset about not being able to visit their home or family or work for years, when there are ways to allow safe travel.

I'd suggest this post in itself demonstrates a major lack of empathy. People all over the UK have been unable to see friends and family elsewhere in the UK, and haven't been able to work for much if not all of the last year, whereas the travel restrictions have only been relatively recent. It's not as if having a home or family abroad or a job in the travel industry makes your sufferings uniquely worse.

Hasn’t the owner of Ryanair been encouraging people to book holidays abroad?

Im just hoping to get someone in 2022, been waiting on a honeymoon since 2019

@ParadiseIsland These times have been few actually. One can't expect a very unwell lady of 80 to sit outside in the cold with her new born granddaughter really.

@Itsalonghaul

green It is so nice of you to be concerned, but I don't have anxiety of any kind.

Would you prefer not to have scientists leading the way with advice? Who would you choose Katie Price? Or how about Ant and Dec? We can have them making decisions for us instead.

The striking thing about your post is the inaccuracy.

If you want to protect jobs and the economy then the best way we can do that is by keeping the country open for business! And you can't do that if you keep going into lockdown after lockdown due to new variants. The only way we can truly control this virus, is by vaccinating the population, and then restricting the entry and importation of new variants. It will only take one variant to wreck the vaccine programme entirely, and we will be back to square one.

I agree with pp we should restrict everyone coming in and out of the country properly.

I am sorry that doesn't fit in with your need for a holiday, but looking at the facts and listening to the science is the only way forward. Or we could see what Katie is doing next week...

Nope i disagree.

If you want to keep the economy going, you want to protect the health of people. (Which actually is also true outside of a pandemic.... see the lack of funding of the nhs etc...)

Which means restraining people coming IN with self isolation/quarantine.
It’s not about stopping people going OUT of the country whilst giving them a long list of exemption and only asking them for a negative PCR test.

@poppycat10

The flu pandemic of the early 1900’s didn’t end with mass vaccinations

I am wondering how that went away in about 18 months with no vaccinations and far inferior healthcare and yet this virus just won't bugger off.

Because it basically ran through the population and reached herd immunity levels. Lots of people died though. The lockdowns have been great at reducing hospitalisations/deaths but it’s also stopped it from spreading through the younger/healthier population whose immunity would have helped reduced the spread. So it’s going to take longer.

@Itsalonghaul for me it’s not really about getting the virus ‘into submission’/stamping it out completely as I don’t think this will be possible, and many countries won’t be fully vaccinated for 10 years, if ever. It should be about keeping the covid rates in the UK low enough that the nhs isn’t overwhelmed, and there is space in intensive care for those few that do become ill with covid. Vaccinating the uk population won’t eradicate covid, but it will keep the rates/deaths low enough that the majority of people can carry on with normal life (Including travel). We don’t all stay at home and never travel to avoid other infectious diseases so I don’t see why covid (and it’s hypothetical variants) is different now we have vaccines in the uk.

@Onedropbeat

Hasn’t the owner of Ryanair been encouraging people to book holidays abroad?

Im just hoping to get someone in 2022, been waiting on a honeymoon since 2019

Oh Yes Mr O’Leary, the multi millionaire boss of an airline.

He’ll really have your best interests at heart won’t he. 🤔

@nith, actually no person in the U.K. has been stopped from seeing relatives for a whole year (bar people in care homes...).

It has been a CHOICE from people not see their relatives in the summer or this winter. We’ve had 7 months of lockdown where we couldn’t get out of the house. That’s another 5 months when people could have organised themselves.
I don’t think that saying that a choice made by people is hardship tbh.

Thanks for the 😂 Priti.

Sighs.

From Monday the stay at home rules end. Therefore the holiday that you couldn't go on before could potentially be allowed.

So they are putting in new rules to REPLACE the existing ones to restrict international travel to control the spread of the virus.

NOT A CHANGE IN POLICY. SAME POLICY.

If you don't agree with the policy that's different.

And BTW, the influenza outbreak. Can be traced back to 1915 and killed up to 100m for 2 years. Was still around for years afterwards just not in the same potency as it mutated to a less deadly strain.

@AnaofBroceliande

Trapping people in their own country, but hey, it's safe.

It will only work if we also stop others coming here for whatever reason. Sadly the virus doesn't understand freedom, it's an indiscriminate killer.

I agree, unless they were abroad in a country with no travel corridor, or they had no money to get there there's really no reason why anyone shouldn't have seen their family for a year. It hasn't been stay local since March 2020 non stop. You could have seen them if you really wanted to.

Something that stayed with me when the lead scientist in SAGE said that the one thing that keeps him awake at night is knowing that almost certainly that very dangerous variant is already out there, and is in a country without genomics testing and will arrive completely undetected

So basically you could do all the ‘right’ things anyway and still be screwed, so why not live in the meantime?

You can’t keep the borders closed and other people out forever

[quote WiganNorthWest]@Itsalonghaul for me it’s not really about getting the virus ‘into submission’/stamping it out completely as I don’t think this will be possible, and many countries won’t be fully vaccinated for 10 years, if ever. It should be about keeping the covid rates in the UK low enough that the nhs isn’t overwhelmed, and there is space in intensive care for those few that do become ill with covid. Vaccinating the uk population won’t eradicate covid, but it will keep the rates/deaths low enough that the majority of people can carry on with normal life (Including travel). We don’t all stay at home and never travel to avoid other infectious diseases so I don’t see why covid (and it’s hypothetical variants) is different now we have vaccines in the uk.[/quote]
Exactly

We’d be waiting for a very long time

@ParadiseIsland Re winter. Please see my previous post.

I am genuinely interested why do you think that SAGE are recommending this? Just for the fun of it?

Do you not think they are tired, in need of a holiday? Have kids they want to play with on sunny beaches?

It is moments like this when I am truly glad it is SAGE making the decisions, and it is not left to popular opinion (on this thread)

If you frame it as a loss of rights that will be gone forever, of course that is going to feel alarming but if you consider that this is a short term decision based on protecting the country, then you come to a different view.

I will be right there with you in five years time if ANY of these restrictions and laws are still in place without use or need. For now I see it as emergency legislation there to protect all of our progress, and to give us some hope of normality again. IF in July things are looking good hopefully it will be possible to travel after then. But don't count on it.

I understand why people are upset, we have had a tough year.

Oh gosh. Will this also apply to rich people , influencers and celebs who fly on private jets.

Asking for a friend.

@Itsalonghaul

green It is so nice of you to be concerned, but I don't have anxiety of any kind.

Would you prefer not to have scientists leading the way with advice? Who would you choose Katie Price? Or how about Ant and Dec? We can have them making decisions for us instead.

The striking thing about your post is the inaccuracy.

If you want to protect jobs and the economy then the best way we can do that is by keeping the country open for business! And you can't do that if you keep going into lockdown after lockdown due to new variants. The only way we can truly control this virus, is by vaccinating the population, and then restricting the entry and importation of new variants. It will only take one variant to wreck the vaccine programme entirely, and we will be back to square one.

I agree with pp we should restrict everyone coming in and out of the country properly.

I am sorry that doesn't fit in with your need for a holiday, but looking at the facts and listening to the science is the only way forward. Or we could see what Katie is doing next week...

My concern is with the erosion of civil liberties, not Ant and Dec, Katie Price or having holidays. Why the stereotyping? Would you like to tell me I need my week in Benidorm or wherever as well?

The country isn't open for business. Do you even understand what competition law does?

I am concerned about the continual suspension of human rights in the UK and the fact that the Blavanik Institute study now shows that the UK now has the harshest restrictions in the world (an internal travel ban for months? Seriously?)

I'd rather governance wasn't done by unelected committees of favoured government experts. There has been long enough now to come up with a more balanced, accountable method of policy making. Ideally one which included a couple of human rights lawyers to balance it out.

The ECHR derogations do not permit such long term suspension of basic human rights for a virus which kills such a small proportion of people, particularly now we have 50% of adults vaccinated. The ECHR was set up to avoid these abuses of human rights occurring. How sad this isn't given any time at all in schools. There needs to be a more nuanced approach now, instead of this blanket gradual creep of increased restrictions.

@viques

Oh gosh. Will this also apply to rich people , influencers and celebs who fly on private jets.

Asking for a friend.

I think they are technically on work trips, so it's different.

@Itsalonghaul

I am genuinely interested why do you think that SAGE are recommending this? Just for the fun of it?

Do you not think they are tired, in need of a holiday? Have kids they want to play with on sunny beaches?

It is moments like this when I am truly glad it is SAGE making the decisions, and it is not left to popular opinion (on this thread)

If you frame it as a loss of rights that will be gone forever, of course that is going to feel alarming but if you consider that this is a short term decision based on protecting the country, then you come to a different view.

I will be right there with you in five years time if ANY of these restrictions and laws are still in place without use or need. For now I see it as emergency legislation there to protect all of our progress, and to give us some hope of normality again. IF in July things are looking good hopefully it will be possible to travel after then. But don't count on it.

I understand why people are upset, we have had a tough year.

SAGE are recommending what exactly? Have they put a time frame to it?

@viques You forgot politicians

@Mercedes519

Sighs.

From Monday the stay at home rules end. Therefore the holiday that you couldn't go on before could potentially be allowed.

So they are putting in new rules to REPLACE the existing ones to restrict international travel to control the spread of the virus.

NOT A CHANGE IN POLICY. SAME POLICY.

If you don't agree with the policy that's different.

And BTW, the influenza outbreak. Can be traced back to 1915 and killed up to 100m for 2 years. Was still around for years afterwards just not in the same potency as it mutated to a less deadly strain.

Oh don't be so rational. We ArE SLEepWalkinG InTo (insert hyperbole of preference).

In other news, Merkel is warning Germans not to travel overseas - it is not just the UK that is worried about this.

[quote Trustisamust]@Itsasin1981 Holidays abroad ARE a luxury. You don't NEED them.
Could you holiday locally and then donate what you would have spent to poorer countries? I think that's a lovely idea and would be a great lesson to your kids regarding how lucky we are to have holidays at all [/quote]
I’m alright Jack, who cares if the grandparents never see their grandkids anymore. Grandparents don’t need to see their grandkids anyway when there’s Zoom!!!111!!!

@UsedUpUsername My very unwell 80 yo MIL has only seen her new granddaughter once (her son's only - and last - child). So no, you're not the only one being asked to make sacrifices here.

This is not the fault of the government or SAGE, this is the virus wishing to survive against an onslaught of vaccines and medication

The virus can't 'wish' anything. Stop personifying.