The penny has dropped

I read on the BBC News website that all international air arrivals are to go into quarantine for two weeks which I think is a very good move probably at least two months too late. Are they to test or/and quarantine all arrivals from now? I found it very hard to believe this hasn’t been happening from the start.
This government took us out of the EU which makes perfect sense to me.

Don’t often agree with you WWM2, but does seem a case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted.

It makes sense when you consider that it comprises a cabinet of second rate yes men and women 'led' by a frequently absent, mendacious, workshy charlatan....

I was thinking yesterday that the civil service must be tearing its collective hair out trying to implement the government's ad hoc panic measures...

Quite agree that it should have been implemented some time ago. I assume, (never assume) that this is being done now in order to cope with the possible easing of restrictions on flying

To be fair we don't have vast amounts of air traffic at present which is why both tour operators and airlines are shedding staff and trying to stave off bankruptcy

Thus article from 3 weeks ago shows how flights have been affected

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-52323416

maizie take it from me they are. I still have contact with people at quite a high grade in the civil service and they as you say tearing their hair out!

I was reasonably supportive of our politicians and this gargantuan task that this government is dealing with, but over time I’ve become less and less so. I’m tired of the lies and seeming ineptness.

The U.K. scientists are furious over the governments censor of their advise.

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/08/revealed-uk-scientists-fury-over-attempt-to-censor-covid-19-advice

Saying all that though. The next few months are going to be incredibly difficult.

We need some good minds brought to bear onto the subject.

When they say they have to "self quarantine" how do they police it.I have always wondered.

What is to stop the person just wandering about, are they monitored, I don't know

Does the "coming into the UK" include the people who are just changing planes in the UK on their way to somewhere else?

I think it's worth remembering that the UK, especially London, is a flight hub, one of the busiest in the world. How would quarantining everyone who passes through work? I mean how would we do it?

It seems to me that the government needs to look at what NZ, Australia and SK have done so successfully. They definitely were very strict (still are) at airports etc.

This is something that sensible people have been asking for some time now. We're told it hasn't been implemented before now as it wouldn't have made any difference to Covid saturation in the UK.

I'm wondering if the real reason we have only just begun to implement testing at airports is because we didn't have the systems or indeed the kit to carry it out.

From the airlines' response, it looks like we still don't...

I think the government were faced with a thankless task in trying to sort this out, and at the beginning, I was in support of them.

I assumed that although I might not have agreed or understood wholly the decisions that were being made, the government were at least listening to and acting upon the scientific advice and acting in what they felt was the best way to get us through this in the most appropriate way.

I am rapidly losing my faith in them though. They seem to have made so many errors of judgement (to me, "just" a member of the public) and been rather wishy-washy with advice on social isolation / distancing etc., giving the public too much leeway with interpretation of the guidance.

And that's another area I'm not comfortable with. Too much "guidance" and not enough "rules", leading to too many breaches.

I don't think we can compare NZ and Australia. 8.5 million tourists visited Australia in 2018. We got 38 million . Vast amount of traffic to deal with.

I agree Blinko, I don't the systems were there.

It's a lot easier to totally quarantine NZ than the UK.

I see flights from the Republic of Ireland are excluded from the 14 quarantine rule.

Could these mean it can be flouted by travellers who could take international flights into Dublin or Shannon airport. Then fly into UK from there?

Alima This government took us out of the EU which makes perfect sense to me.

Then we have a massive load of nostalgia for VE, ignoring the fact that Victory In Europe was done by almost every country, plus the USA and the USSR. And that the EU was created to ensure there would be no more world wide wars in Europe. So I see no sense at all in leaving

Oh and today 9th May is Europe Day.

I’m wondering if coming in from Gibraltar would be included like The Republic as it is part of the U.K. they’ve had very little Covid and no deaths. Just wondering as my son lives there and often visits London on business but would be pointless if he had to quarantine. I’m sure he’ll find out though. It’s a bit like shutting the stable door I agree.

It just takes Boris time to do things and he does it his way.

I don’t see why the Republic of Ireland should be excluded. What about all those coming from Calais etc by boats. Will they be tested and, if found positive, treated on our NHS? And if they are, why should they be? I find that unacceptable. Easy to blame the government, but would the sainted Keir have done it any differently?

yggdrasil we have left the EU not Europe or indeed other Europeans. That would be impossible geographically

The island of Ireland throws up big loopholes in this plan.

South of the border is part of Europe and north is obviously UK.

If only north of the border is exempt from the quarantine rule then Irish citizens south of the border just have to cross the border and fly from Belfast instead of Dublin.

If as planned the entire island of Ireland is exempt then what’s to stop travellers coming from Europe and further afield arriving in UK via an interconnecting flight from Dublin?

This is still not due to happen until the end of May!!!! So yet again we are at the coo’s tail. What don’t the government understand.

In my opinion this should have been done two, three or more months ago. Eighteen million people entered Britain just before and around the time the virus took hold in Britain. Fifteen thousand a week were entering during our (loose) lockdown. Scientists think the virus most common here came from Italy and Europe, apparently there are three strains of the virus, A,B, and C although all closely linked.
I’m not convinced any government would have behaved much differently, but we will never know that.