Government urged to stop overseas holidays

[ArseInTheCoOpWindow]

By a cross party comittee. They aren’t happy with Heathrow arrivals which they describe as a sieve. They don’t want the same thing happening at other airports..
And variants.
Thoughts?

Foreign travel - the last refuge of the doom mongers!

People need to live - if you don’t want to go abroad, don’t go. Those who do, have to jump through ridiculous amounts of hoops on their departure / return.

No evidence any variants avoid the vaccine,

2.6 million people employed in foreign travel in the U.K. worth £106 billion pounds a year.

One of the committee of MPs was also of the opinion that we should have joined the EU vaccination programme in 2020 - how did that work out?

MPs getting air time throwing popular opinions around without having to be responsible for the fall out. Easy to throw a whole industry under the bus when you think it doesn’t effect you.

And some people think it’s all about allowing Marge and Fred to go to Benidorm for the week

@Crazycatlady83

Foreign travel - the last refuge of the doom mongers!

People need to live - if you don’t want to go abroad, don’t go. Those who do, have to jump through ridiculous amounts of hoops on their departure / return.

No evidence any variants avoid the vaccine,

2.6 million people employed in foreign travel in the U.K. worth £106 billion pounds a year.

One of the committee of MPs was also of the opinion that we should have joined the EU vaccination programme in 2020 - how did that work out?

MPs getting air time throwing popular opinions around without having to be responsible for the fall out. Easy to throw a whole industry under the bus when you think it doesn’t effect you.

And some people think it’s all about allowing Marge and Fred to go to Benidorm for the week

100% agree with this.

International travel is not necessary, even when people have family abroad. I’m sorry, it’s not.

In some lines of work, yes it is.....even the UK government recognises that - it has only implemented a ban on foreign holidays.

Crazycatlady83 - well said, a 100% agree from me as well.

If the festival I want to attend in the summer is cancelled, but people popping for a fortnight in Ibiza is fine, I will be really quite upset. It’s a nonsense. International travel is not necessary, even when people have family abroad. I’m sorry, it’s not.

So you want your festival to go ahead and will be upset if it doesn't, but think it's fair enough to deprive other people of what they are looking forward to, namely a foreign holiday. Personally, I can't think of anything more vile than camping in a muddy field and getting into a sweaty mosh pit with thousands of strangers, which is far more likely to spread Covid than anything I'll be doing on my foreign holiday. It's all about priorities isn't it?!

I think people who have family abroad that they haven't been able to see should have priority, but not arsed about holidays in general for one year, people will survive.

@Roboticcarrot

I think people who have family abroad that they haven't been able to see should have priority, but not arsed about holidays in general for one year, people will survive.

Erm why? No one should be more entitled than someone else to travel.

"At the moment I am not really supposed to travel 100 miles to visit my mother because she is housebound and we are not allowed indoors. My kids are supposed to stay 2m apart from the other children that they spend all day with. My fully vaccinated FIL is still advised to shield. I can’t try clothes on in most places before I buy them."

@SellFridges I think you'd do well to have a little update on the government website.

You can absolutely travel 100 miles, it is also very likely you could form a support bubble as if she's housebound she needs care.

Your FIL doesn't need to shield anymore. That's ended.

Your kids don't need to maintain a 2 metre distance in their class bubbles and never have had to!

Changing rooms are open in many stores and can all be open

@zafferana totally agree.

My whole reason for being is to travel, I love it, love seeing new places.

I don't get why people are so desperate to go to a football match, or go to a gig, or the pub, or see their extended family - I could use all the arguments people are using on here to justify none of those things happening until next year.

BUT I have enough empathy to realise that other people must have the same feeling as I do towards travel, but they feel like that towards their sports matches/gigs/pubs/family or whatever.

So, in order to be fair, everything has to be opened up at the same time, albeit slowly and carefully.

Erm why? No one should be more entitled than someone else to travel.

Entitlement very much describes the attitude a lot fo people have, yes. Personally I have more empathy for those who haven't been able to see their family for 18 months plus, yes.

@loginfail

I think it's fair enough for the committee to express concerns, and there should be some changes to procedures at some airports.

However calling for zero holidays, at all, abroad until the threat of Covid in the UK reduces to some very very low and as yet seemingly undefined level presents the very real risk of costing tens if not hundreds of thousands of jobs in the UK, with associated economic and other consequences for lots of families and a very cost to the country. in terms of tax revenue etc.

We're back to risk vs. benefit and that's a government call.

Yes, but yet another lockdown if cases rise again, partly due to returning travellers, would do even more damage to jobs/economy.

Your FIL doesn't need to shield anymore. That's ended.

That depends on the medical condition. Some consultants/doctors are still telling patients with certain conditions that they should continue to shield.

Just open it up and roll with it but make everyone test (properly) and be vaccinated as soon as they can. That way we can get back to some quality of life.

I'd far rather the more essential things were back to normal first, such as universities, shops, workplaces, hospitals/GPs, etc. It seems a bit wrong if people can go on holiday but GPs are still hiding behind their sofas.

"That depends on the medical condition. Some consultants/doctors are still telling patients with certain conditions that they should continue to shield."

Despite them being fully vaccinated? Unless they are due to have surgery or treatment imminently then it seems unusual

@Badbadbunny

... yet another lockdown if cases rise again, partly due to returning travellers, would do even more damage to jobs/economy.

That's why I mentioned it's all down to risk vs. benefit..

There are obviously some very keen fans on here of the concept of locking down TFN, yet they offer no clue as to when they would consider it would acceptable to relax restrictions. Instead we hear thoughts along the lines that it's still too soon or best to hold on until 2022 .

They are entitled to their POV but they must not kid themselves or try to kid anybody else that doing so won't have repercussions across the whole economy.

There's a whole industry hanging by it's finger nails at the moment and there's certainly a risk of a massive amount of damage being done and thousands of jobs being lost if some degree of leisure travel isn't allowed this summer.

If people weren't allowed to travel overseas for holidays what impact would that have on UK economy? Would some UK based industries (hospitality, arts) get a boom?

On the plus side there are some beautiful places in the UK to holiday in although the weather can be a bit unpredictable.

I’m up to date with the guidelines, thanks, and understand them fully. We can’t form a bubble (makes more sense for that to be someone local as I can’t drop everything to get her to hospital quickly from this distance), the kids should maintain social distancing outside of school (they don’t, but that’s a risk I understand and enforce if others are uncomfortable, and he has only recently been told to shield (but is ignoring it as is his right).

I agree with those discussing risk. With our situation in the UK right now, it’s much higher risk to allow international travel without restriction than it is to adjust restrictions to allow more freedoms in this country. The Government should provide proper support to that industry, but should be more able to do so given other industries will be relying on less support as things open up in the UK.

And if it is discovered that there is more risk opening up open air festivals than there is allowing international travel to countries with higher prevalence of cases than the UK, I will accept that and keep hoping for the future.

My biggest concern is that the other countries we are permitted to travel to may not adequately control who is permitted in.

The UK can say "go to Spain, it's safe, low figures blah blah" - have they checked what Spain are doing re travellers coming in from other countries?

No one needs a holiday abroad at the expense of our current low levels of risk.

It’s much higher risk to allow international travel without restriction

Literally no one is discussing allowing international travel without restriction! There will be restrictions galore including vaccination passports, Covid tests, entry/re-entry restrictions, and a traffic light system telling us where is safe and when. How on Earth is that travelling 'without restriction'???

I’m going to go against the contrary and disagree with most people. I think it is safe to travel abroad with restrictions. Some people are making out you can visit India or Brazil without any sort of restrictions from later this month . It definitely won’t be like that.

The traffic light system will be much more comprehensive than its predecessor. There will be an early indication of when countries are going to be downgraded from green to amber. So hopefully will avoid the fiasco of last year with having to self-isolating upon return. Currently there will be fewer than ten countries on the green list and not all of them will allow British travellers just yet. They currently have very high vaccination rates and low infection rates with good capabilities for genomic sequencing so it’s unlikely it’ll fall off the green list unless a variant of concern were to pop up. Israel have already said they will only accept those who are fully vaccinated.

There are concerns with the vaccine not working as well against the SA/Brazil variant however no evidence has shown so far that it isn’t effective against these variants.

People saying we should wait until the world has reached our vaccination levels. I hope you also know that most western countries have bought pretty much all of the supplies from Oxford/Pfizer/Moderna meaning they (Africa being a big one, where there is a hidden pandemic, India and other poor countries) won’t reach herd immunity until probably late 2023/early 2024. They definitely won’t be on the green list. Are you suggesting we wait until then, let the industry go bust or start very carefully opening up to other countries that have a good vaccination rollout and low infections?

Obviously it isn’t perfect but we have to make a start somewhere. Other countries are doing it safely and haven’t seen an increase of infections - why can’t we?

After the appalling appearance of the Borders Agency man on Friday's Covid briefing, quite frankly with excuses normally from 80s That's Life or Watchdog, I understand the concerns of the committee.

Though with only four countries effectively with foreign travel permitted from May 17th, the issue may not raise its head yet.

The UK and Europe have never tried to follow a zero covid policy and are expecting us to live with a certain amount of it, as long are annual deaths are within certain levels then we can open up. People saying they'd rather wait until holidays abroad next year are being very short sighted, covid will still be with us. We can't stay locked up together and I'm hopeful we can manage to live a normal life alongside covid.

Jesus wept, we have vaccines, just let people get on with their lives. Don't go abroad if you dont want to but don't insist everyone else sit home to avert the FOMO of those staying home.

And to think many thought the Berlin Wall and Stasi would never happen here. Covid has shown us it could, and a vocal minority would absoutely delight in it.

@PicsInRed

Jesus wept, we have vaccines, just let people get on with their lives. Don't go abroad if you dont want to but don't insist everyone else sit home to avert the FOMO of those staying home.

And to think many thought the Berlin Wall and Stasi would never happen here. Covid has shown us it could, and a vocal minority would absoutely delight in it.

And it's up to other countries whether they want to let us in or not, nothing to do with the Stasi ffs.

Travel hasn’t stopped hence the current surge in cases in Bolton of the Indian and South African variant affecting the populations with the poorest vaccine uptakes. The government aren’t going to do anything. I have so much anger for how the government have handled this, all the lives lost, the economy when as an island we could have done what Oz and NZ have done and had mostly normal lives.