Attitudes making you think differently of people.

[Flatdisco]

A relative sent me a petition and asked me to sign it, asking the government give free PCR tests for travel. In my opinion if people want to travel in a pandemic they should have to pay for the additional precautions. I have no intention of travelling abroad this year so I don't know the cost of the tests. But I have heard something on radio 4 recently about companies being accused of monopolising and over charging. So I can imagine they are expensive.

I also think covid has cost us loads as a country, quite rightly. So I don't think the beat use of resources is to pay for tests so people can have holidays abroad.

Luckily all my family are on the same page re vaccination (all double vaxxed). This is the first time I've come up against something and been like really? How can you think that. I feel like it's quite a selfish point of view and I'm a bit disappointed in the family member tbh. I know it's only a petition, it's not like they've caught covid from being anti vaxx. So really not a big deal, but it does change how I view them

I haven't replied and probably won't. So just having a little moan, but it got me thinking there must be loads of people who have been surprised by loved ones attitudes to covid and the resulting restrictions. Anyone like to share similar experiences so I don't feel it's just me!

Yes I see what you mean. A good friend of mine is anti Vax (which is totally fine, it's her right to have her view and I respect it) but she keeps on asking why the hell did I get vaccinated and comes out with various conspiracy theories and tells me it's all a hoax and I've been brainwashed, apparently. I love my friend dearly but it does put me off seeing her a bit if I'm honest. If I try to change the subject we slowly end up back discussing this and it feels very awkward.

I agree with you 100%, other than in the very rare occasion that the foreign travel is essential.

People need to accept that foreign holidays just aren't sustainable any more. It was a bitter pill for me to swallow at first, but now I've realised that we have everything we could ever want right here in the UK and I'd be happy never to leave the country again.

I wish people would realise there are hundreds of thousands of people who can’t afford to see their families abroad for this reason, and not assuming that travelling for reasons other than holidays is rare.

Is it only holidays you object to? Can you think of other reasons people might need to travel, even in a pandemic?

FWIW this isn’t something that outrages me or that I would go as far as campaigning about, but I can see why there is an argument for lowering costs of tests even if not making them free. But because it doesn’t affect me personally it’s easy for me to say it’s not so important, isn’t it.

However, in answer to your actual question, pre-covid I had differences of opinion with loved-ones, friends, colleagues and so on, and this sort of thing we could agree to disagree and move on without it being a momentous shift in our relationship, and that’s still the way it works now.

@NannyAndJohn

I agree with you 100%, other than in the very rare occasion that the foreign travel is essential.

People need to accept that foreign holidays just aren't sustainable any more. It was a bitter pill for me to swallow at first, but now I've realised that we have everything we could ever want right here in the UK and I'd be happy never to leave the country again.

🤣 you really do talk some rubbish

@NannyAndJohn

I agree with you 100%, other than in the very rare occasion that the foreign travel is essential.

People need to accept that foreign holidays just aren't sustainable any more. It was a bitter pill for me to swallow at first, but now I've realised that we have everything we could ever want right here in the UK and I'd be happy never to leave the country again.

What a load of rubbish! Haven't you noticed people are going abroad on holiday now? I presume you're happy for the travel industry to go under and more people lose their jobs.

I'm staying in the UK next year but 2023 I'm planning on going to the US and I can't bloody wait!

I’m going on holiday abroad tomorrow.
I think the tests are an utter rip off.
They’re just those LFT ones you can free in the chemists.

@Nichebitch

I wish people would realise there are hundreds of thousands of people who can’t afford to see their families abroad for this reason, and not assuming that travelling for reasons other than holidays is rare.

This.

There are lots of reasons why people need to travel that are not just going off on their holidays.

If the government are imposing this as a requirement then it should be free or at least affordable for most people.

I don’t see why PCR tests are needed from most countries. We have one of the highest case rates in the world.

Variants are going to get in and take hold regardless of testing and quarantine requirements. So what is the point?

Someone wanting free PCR testing for travel wouldn't bother me, but I'd be put off by someone like @Awayfromhome448's friend, banging on about other people's choices as if their view is of paramount importance.

Our PCR tests costs £43 each on return from holiday.

I accepted it as part of travel costs this year.

Why should the NHS pay?

The way I look at, someone getting tested before traveling isn't benefiting themselves by doing so. Ok, maybe they get the benefits of avoiding quarantine requirements, but those requirements weren't put in place for their benefit - they were put in place to protect everyone else. Covid isn't cancer, and early detection doesn't give someone a better chance of recovery. If people are going to be required to do costly things for the benefit of society, with no corresponding benefit to themselves, then I think society - not the individuals - should be footing the costs. I think the same is true of quarantine - if the government is going to require people to stay home for the benefit of society, then the government should be footing the bill for things like meal delivery and lost wages. If the cost of all of that makes those policies less popular with the taxpayers who are paying for them, so much the better.

I think the recent converts to less plane travel for the sake of the environment are rather hilarious. How self-absorbed would you have to be to need a pandemic, with associated deaths and restrictions, to twig that maybe fewer plane flights might be a good thing for the environment. Or maybe they aren’t quite telling the truth, who knows

I got sent that petition too. I've just deleted it.
love Nanny and John's response

In my opinion, a holiday is a luxury, not a necessity. When I was a child I knew children whose summer holidays were spent at home. Don't get me wrong I do understand if you have worked hard, saved all year how much you look forward to a break. My sympathy is for people with family and friends abroad who just cannot get to see them. I knew people who had 5 holidays abroad per year, good luck to them, they worked for it. Was it sustainable? I really don't know.

I agree with you 100%, other than in the very rare occasion that the foreign travel is essential.

People need to accept that foreign holidays just aren't sustainable any more. It was a bitter pill for me to swallow at first, but now I've realised that we have everything we could ever want right here in the UK and I'd be happy never to leave the country again

Love it.

After a cold, grey and very disappointing U.K. break this summer we’ve just booked a holiday to Mallorca in October. The cost of the tests is annoying, and I hate that a few people are massively cashing in on this, but we’ve just factored it into travel costs and wouldn’t be expecting anyone else to pay.

I think any crisis as significant as Covid has the potential to test friendships and reveal people’s deepest principles. I’ve sadly lost a couple of friends during the pandemic due to our fundamentally differing attitudes towards the treatment of children and young people (I have a child; they are child-free and were very vocal about wanting masks on small children, extended school closures, playgrounds closed etc).

I don’t think the tests should be free because it’s never really free is it, surely taxpayers have paid for it?

In reality large scale foreign travel will end within our lifetimes, the idea of being able to travel internationally multiple times a year is just not sustainable from an environmental perspective (at least with current planes, hydrogen powered planes are many decades away and it is unlikely that battery planes will ever be viable for all but the shortest short haul flights).

I also can see a situation where in the next decade or so there will be a large range of communicable diseases for which vaccination is required to be able to travel internationally. It will not just be Covid or Yellow Fever, but a wide range. I do not have a problem with that, but I am sure some on here will.

I wish people would realise there are hundreds of thousands of people who can’t afford to see their families abroad for this reason, and not assuming that travelling for reasons other than holidays is rare.

Absolutely this.

Also selfishly, I do want to travel again. If not now, then when will people think it’s acceptable again? What’s the criteria you’ll accept for it no longer being “unacceptable, there’s a pandemic don’t you know!” Is there a number of people in hospital you’ll accept, a number of daily deaths? Because we may never get to what you’re hoping for.

Our worlds have all got smaller over the past 18 months and I don’t think it’s a good thing to continue demonise travelling forevermore.

After a cold, grey and very disappointing U.K. break this summer we’ve just booked a holiday to Mallorca in October. The cost of the tests is annoying, and I hate that a few people are massively cashing in on this, but we’ve just factored it into travel costs and wouldn’t be expecting anyone else to pay.

I don't blame you! I love UK holidays and one of the best holidays I've ever had was to Cornwall as the weather was amazing. I even love a change of scenery if the weather is crap. However, after spending a week in the cold pissing rain in May even I am longing for some sun. We've booked Cornwall for next year as I want to see how things settle but 2023 is abroad come what may!

People are travelling again.
I’m going tomorrow.

Tests shouldn't be free for travel as there is no such thing as free , someone picks uo the bill.
But they should be capped .
If you need an injection for a foreign country its not done on the nhs

I wish people would realise there are hundreds of thousands of people who can’t afford to see their families abroad for this reason, and not assuming that travelling for reasons other than holidays is rare.

But pre covid there were presumably plenty of people who couldn’t afford to see family abroad due to the cost of a plane ticket, and I didn’t hear this much fuss over that. People who can afford the ticket but not the test weren’t concerned about people who could never even afford the plane ticket.
It’s a cost of travel at the moment. Just like the ticket, accommodation, insurance, vaccinations for travel (not covid, I mean things you’ve always needed for travel to certain countries). This is just another one - why should the state pay for it?

The cost of travel tests should be fair and proportionate but no they shouldn't be free.

No holiday is essential and if people choose to live in different countries from other family members then there's always going to be expenses associated with travelling to meet up. That's not the responsibility of the tax payers.

Luckily most people I know are double jabbed. I'm discretely avoiding those that aren't.

@Gothichouse40

In my opinion, a holiday is a luxury, not a necessity. When I was a child I knew children whose summer holidays were spent at home. Don't get me wrong I do understand if you have worked hard, saved all year how much you look forward to a break. My sympathy is for people with family and friends abroad who just cannot get to see them. I knew people who had 5 holidays abroad per year, good luck to them, they worked for it. Was it sustainable? I really don't know.

You knew children whose summer holidays were spent at home.

This must be the most mn post ice ever read