Who's currently cancelling their holiday to Portugal then?

[diggingatrench]

Live not like

@Katie517

It’s an absolute joke! We are due to go end of July and will be cancelling if it doesn’t get back in the green list at the next review. It’s a farce people are vaccinated, paying for tests at their own expense at vastly inflated prices and it’s still not good enough, we are still expected to imprison ourselves in our homes on return even though we will have tested negative before getting on the plane and on day 2. Anyone who thought vaccines were our ticket to freedom must be feeling very silly now. Meanwhile business travelers and government officials can jet here there and everywhere with no isolation period, you couldn’t make this shit up.

So true!!

I honestly think they should compel people who don't want a vaccine (unless medically unable) to have it for the good of everyone.

Take up playing football, seems you can go anywhere. Im sorry for folks here with ruined holidays.

@RoseRedRoseBlue

This whole situation is an utter, utter farce. I don’t know how the Government have got the nerve to show their collective face.

Another problem here is that travel companies/airlines have incurred costs trying to generate packages, schedule and crew flights etc in the belief that there was going to be a few weeks of stability.....

As Grant Schapps wrote on 12th May:

"The government is committed to giving people the freedom to travel with confidence and supporting the wider travel industry."

www.gov.uk/government/speeches/traffic-light-system-safe-return-to-international-travel

Parts of the travel industry and many of those with careers/incomes that depend on it are generally not sensing that support tonight.

Anyone who thought vaccines were our ticket to freedom must be feeling very silly now

No one actually paying attention thought this.

I mean actually they ARE our ticket to freedom. But not until the majority of those eligible to have the vaccine have had both doses, and ditto for the rest of the world.

We're not cancelling. In fact I checked us in online last night.

I realise of course, that the airline might yet cancel our flight (for the second time - this has been rolled over from last year). If they don't cancel then we'll be going

venus no need to be obtuse, the reason so many people have taken the vaccine (more than half the UK population) is because the government sold them the idea that this was the way back to normality, I've heard Boris say it. They (the government) oversold it, lockdown in Jan was to allow for the vaccine role out, now what, it's rolled out and we still can't do anything?

@Needanewhat

Anyone who thought vaccines were our ticket to freedom must be feeling very silly now

No one actually paying attention thought this.

I mean actually they ARE our ticket to freedom. But not until the majority of those eligible to have the vaccine have had both doses, and ditto for the rest of the world.

I agree with that, but that is not what the government were peddling in Jan

the reason so many people have taken the vaccine (more than half the UK population) is because the government sold them the idea that this was the way back to normality, I've heard Boris say it. They (the government) oversold it, lockdown in Jan was to allow for the vaccine role out, now what, it's rolled out and we still can't do anything?

It IS the road back to normality but not everyone has had both doses yet.

Dear goodness, how hard is that to understand?!?!

I agree with that, but that is not what the government were peddling in Jan

I knew it all along because I didn't just pay attention to press conference soundbites.

And anyone else who did even a modicum of research outside of Boris's press conferences would have realised it too.

All you saying that you thought getting vaccinated would give you more freedoms - you have understood how vaccinations work in a population? PP just posted that 50% of adults in UK are vaccinated (assuming that's fully vaccinated?) so that isn't anywhere near enough to get freedoms back, is it?

It really is a case of waiting it out, keeping to the distancing, mask wearing and sensible precautions, and getting as many people through the vaccination programme as possible.

As for pp asking what the government could have done better? your country is an island. What do you think?

Not in the uk. My government is also using the vaccines are the way out of this message but the difference is that they are making it clear that the entire world needs to be vaccinated before overseas leisure travel can resume.

I don’t know anyone who has booked an overseas holiday or who is even contemplating booking one.

It’s tough but I’m just grateful that day to day life is relatively normal

@Needanewhat

All I remember of holidays abroad as a child is bickering with my sisters.

Right, well that renders the whole travel industry pointless at a stroke, doesn't it? 🙄

Maybe spare a thought for those of us with families abroad, whom we haven't seen for 18 months?

Why?

Quick response is needed to data.

Maybe spare a thought for those of us with families abroad, whom we haven't seen for 18 months?

I have family abroad. Haven't seen them in four years.

Most people in the UK have been vaccinated.

No they haven't.

Yes they have. On the BBC site right now.

Don't know which BBC site you're looking at - this is from the BBC yesterday:
'So far, over 39 million people have had a first vaccine dose - 75% of the adult population - and more than 26 million have had a second.'

So 3/4 of the uk adult population have had one, 1/2 have had both. That isn't 'most people'

Also a major glaring problem here is that children haven't had it, and children are a major source of spread at the moment (schools).

Mmm. Get a vaccine they said. You can travel they said. Er right. No you can't!

Does anyone actually believe that putting countries on the amber list will make a blind bit of difference? The variants are already here, including the ‘nepal’ one.

Either allow free travel or have a proper much stricter quarantine regime.

This pandemic has clearly illustrated how small our world has become. Just because we're doing well with our vaccines, this shouldn't mean us Brits can swan off again around the world as if this thing is over. We're not safe until everyone is safe. Anyone planning unnecessary trips abroad at this time are selfish, stupid and contributing to the prolonging of this miserable situation.

@RockingMyFiftiesNot

Most people in the UK have been vaccinated.

No they haven't.

Yes they have. On the BBC site right now.

Don't know which BBC site you're looking at - this is from the BBC yesterday:
'So far, over 39 million people have had a first vaccine dose - 75% of the adult population - and more than 26 million have had a second.'

So 3/4 of the uk adult population have had one, 1/2 have had both. That isn't 'most people'

Well, depends on how we define "most". I'm any event, death levels are close to nil.

@moynomore

Anyone with half a brain knew that vaccines would only be the "ticket to freedom" when a critical mass of people had been vaccinated. It was blatantly obvious that we wouldn't have "freedom" until most people had been vaccinated.

Most people in the UK have been vaccinated.

Just over half of adults. That's not "most people" and it's just the UK, not the countries we hope to travel to.

This is precisely why I didn't book anything this year, not even in the UK. What's the point - just more disappointment..........

It's a pandemic. I don't get why anyone is booking a holiday abroad. It's a fragile situation not helped by our shit government