Airbridges - will Scotland have separate rules?

[rookiemere]

If air bridges are agreed with some countries, does anyone know if that's for whole of UK or would Scotland be able to do something different regarding quarantine?
I get confused as to what Scotland has control over versus what's centrally decided.

Border control isn't devolved so i think it will be a UK wide ruling

Thanks dancemom that's what I thought, but wasn't sure if they'd be able to impose different quarantine restrictions as a health measure.

Well it looks as if Scotland is trying to do something different.

Border control is not devolved so SG cannot stop, but health is. Which I think means they can be instructed to quarantine once here.

Additional complication will be those who drive to English airports such as Manchester to fly. All a bit of a mess again.

Just Sturgeon signalling "I'll go my own way" when she means "I'll do what Boris says but later". This will be quicker than most because she daren't have people told "all the cheap holidays went in the first week".

Should be simple to ignore whatever Sturgeon comes up with. Just take a domestic shuttle flight from Edinburgh or Glasgow to an English airport such as Gatwick or Manchester and fly on holiday from there.
You can bet she will copy Boris in a week or two anyway, once she’s shown her supporters that Scotland is “oh so different” to England. Pathetic, but if one wants to tear the UK apart, one has to sow as much division and discord as possible- while still pocketing the bailout money from Westminster, without which Scotland would have been broke.

Thing is we've already got flights to Majorca from Edinburgh at start of August. If we need to fly from Newcastle it will be a faff to change them and if there is quarantine then DS will miss the start of school.

I'm tempted to cancel, but DH is determined we should go and we only have until Thursday if we want to cancel the villa penalty free.

It is totally unworkable and similar to the situation where Scotland suddenly decided to open up self catering from 3rd July rather than 15th as I suspect the penny finally dropped that everyone would head to England for their break rather than continuing to languish inside here within the 5 mile limit.

Just Sturgeon signalling "I'll go my own way" when she means "I'll do what Boris says but later".

The UK border control announcement was made to the public without any discussion with the other nations who have responsibility for health. SG now need to look at the announcement and make the right decision for Scotland. This takes time.

Should be simple to ignore whatever Sturgeon comes up with. Just take a domestic shuttle flight from Edinburgh or Glasgow to an English airport such as Gatwick or Manchester and fly on holiday from there.

The UK government has already blocked that loophole did border control by saying if you fly via Dublin, for example, you need to have been in Dublin for 14 days. SG could potentially do the same with whatever powers she has for health. This is the reason why these things take time to work out. If the UK government had told the other nations of its intentions in advance announcements could have been made together.

This just makes me really cross. There's no need for quarantine now from countries which have less virus and better testing and tracing than us. Ruining people's holidays as well as the schools fiasco isn't going to play well with the country.

UKBA Isn't devolved. They'll follow the Westminster rules. I highly doubt they'll be taking details after the 6th, for Scottish airports. They don't have the man power to enforce it really.

Ryanair started flying last week and it's been surprising how busy the flights have been.

@WeAllHaveWings I don't know how this was a surprise to the SG. Newspapers have been talking about air bridges for weeks so surely the SG could have looked at this by now.
We've got two holidays booked in July to Europe and we're going I hope. Even if we need to quarantine because NS has to be three weeks behind Boris then announce the same thing called something slightly different.

You can bet she will copy Boris in a week or two anyway, once she’s shown her supporters that Scotland is “oh so different” to England

Scotland is oh so different from England. It is on the way to eliminating the virus, and had no recorded deaths over the weekend. So yes, it is different, and why wouldn't they want to keep it that way?

Countries with lower levels of the virus are not in tourist season yet and there could be higher risks with busy crowded tourist spots and travellers from several countries all in the same place.

The epidemiologists will be considering it all, not just looking at Scotland but those other countries and advising SG of the level of risk importing the virus when Scotland has very low levels. It isn't simply 'ruining people's holidays' it is about the correct assessment of risk to public health. Of course if SG put in restrictions for public health reasons it will always piss off some.

Newspapers have been talking about air bridges for weeks so surely the SG could have looked at this by now.

You think SG should be looking into their approach based on what they read in newspapers?

@WeAllHaveWings yes

It doesn't matter how Spain, etc's virus numbers are looking - any holidays Scots go on they're going to find themselves staying close to people from England, who clearly do not have their numbers under control. I'm surprised other countries are letting them in.

[quote trumpisaflump]@WeAllHaveWings yes[/quote]
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@SamSeabornforPresident Patel said this morning that they still need to negogiate the 'bridges' so highly likely countries will not allow travel from England w/o strict controls/ quarantine. I suspect Scotland will be lumped with the same rules due to UK Gov not allowing SG to take part in talks but not sure.

Just had a quick look - Scotland is being lumbered under 'UK' regarding rules for entry and many countries require quarantine for 14 days after arrival.

Good point @MumofHunter, just because UKG is dropping inbound quarantine, doesn't mean destinations have agreed to accept UK passengers without restrictions/quarantine. What the UKG or SG decide might be irrelevant if they won't have us!!

samseaborn they are more likely to bump into English people if they go on holiday to England - which would be the natural consequence of not being able to go abroad or having more stringent quarantine than the rest of the UK.

It doesn't really matter what the R currently is here, in Spain, France or anywhere else. The virus is still out there, it hasn't changed into a nice wee friendly virus and we still don't have a significant improvement in treatments to merit being blase about it. A measured relaxation of lockdown and social distancing is appropriate on the back of the reduced rate of infection. Opening the floodgates on foreign holidays on the other hand is utter madness. Holidays mean large crowds, people from diverse regions commingling and then returning to their home region. Social distancing is the bedrock of our defenses at the moment and stereotypical holidays are the complete opposite of social distancing. I fully expect this to put us right back to square one.

Yes @WeAllHaveWings I'm not sure it would be much of a holiday if you can't go out. Not sure what fines etc are. There are some countries which don't require quarantine but very little.