The penny has dropped

We have been too slow to act on pretty much everything we’ve done, so I agree with you Oldbat1.

Ignore my ramblings about the Republic of Ireland.

They already have a 14 day quarantine in place for incoming travellers.

So providing that remains in place the loopholes I was waffling on about won’t actually exist.

Far too many people enter this country without any checks of any kind. We came back from holiday beginning March just as it was all starting to kick off. No checks at Gatwick, everybody just breezed straight through as normal. No matter where they had landed from. In Australia you were quarantined for 14 days on entry. The airports were locked down pretty quickly too, hence they’ve not had it so bad over there.

The issue of people coming into the UK, by whatever means of transport, and being tested/quarantined was discussed on a previous thread on GN a few days ago. In the 3 months before lockdown 18.1 million people came into this country. Of those just 273 were formally tested and quarantined.

I don't agree that we can't compare the UK with New Zealand/Australia; if we had been as proactive as they've been we wouldn't still be having hundreds of new cases reported every day. New Zealand has had zero new cases for over a week now, as a direct result of closing its borders to the rest of the world. It's lunacy to say that well start to take action but not until the end of the month. What's the point of that? We should have acted weeks ago.

And how soon before one of bleaters comes up with 'uman rights being infringed?
The numbers game is pointless, no two countries are recording in the same way or even the same thing, comparisons are odious, the true figures will never be known.

The reason they don’t do it is the usual one which outweighs every sensible way forward for this country: the cry of racism and human rights being infringed. That’s why they don’t take these decisions. Other countries don’t seem to be weighed down by this in the way that our country is. Terrified of offending someone, hence nothing is ever done.

Agreed Oscaroll.
Why bother about upsetting those whose paranoia about freedom of movement etc. gets in the way of the health of the majority ?
It wouldn't have bothered me to have ordered shutting down the whole country from January, we wouldn't have had all this nonsense now, as it is nonsense. Next month will mark over 6 months of this KNOWN virus !

Chrwbacca
Agreed.

“Human rights and racism”

Not in this governments case.

Johnson is far more concerned with small government and as a result he hangs back from decisions such as this.

That is why we are always later than most countries.

Nothing to do with human rights.

The really bizarre thing is that one of the mantras that Johnson used to spout about sovereignty was “we will take control of our borders”

The one thing he didn’t do amongst others was

“Take control of our borders”

Odd that.

But it's the libertarian right-wingers who re shouting about infringement of personal freedom. They're not renowned for concern about human rights and racism.

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

I’m so saddened at “our” extremely poor response. Too little far too late.

I think that a few people on this thread need to stop and think 'There, but for the grace of God, go I'.

Moving away from the airport scenario but countries that are controlling the pandemic quite well are, when it comes to supermarkets, having people put hand sanitisers on peoples hands as they enter, taking temperatures, wiping trollies between customers and implementing social distancing. Oh, and everyone has to wear a mask. Not sure which countries I'm referring to. And not sure what measures are being taken here as I stopped shopping a long time ago.

I find it appalling that we had two weeks notice from Italy and an Island where we can monitor our borders we have the second highest death rate in the world.

Remember the first cases in Wuhan, when Brits were there on arrival in the UK they were put in quarantine in the Wirral? Why not for other people who were travelling in Italy when the virus hit there?

I am appalled we haven't managed the borders. So many people staying at home, to see people fly in unchecked!!

What I want to know is where are all these people who are flying in coming from, and why? I know that there are still some people who have been stranded abroad, but that can't account for the large numbers of passengers we are told about, surely. Are there still people flying for business, or even worse, holidays?

Also, the airlines and airports seem to think that this quarantining is going to have a serious impact on their businesses - why? And is that any reason to endanger the rest of us by not imposing the quarantining which should have been in place for months now?

(Is quarantining a word and if so, have I spelt it wrongly? It doesn't look right - but I'm sure you know what I mean )

What IS the point? We have a higher rate here than nearly anywhere. We're far more likely to give it to them than get it from them.

This is all too late. Even the people who have come into the country have been very surprised that they could just walk out of the airport get onto public transport and go wherever they like. They were given no advice whatsoever.

The testing is not coming into force until the end of the month for people arriving in the U.K. via the borders. The Home Secretary has been in touch with her counterpart in France re. the number os immigrants arriving in England illegally. Coronvirus is spreading in the camps in Calais apparently, I'm not sure if this is here say.

Just one thing. There is nothing simple about this. It's not just a case of entering lockdown too late or whatever

Look to Italy.

First country in Europe to impose a lockdown

Closed their borders

But have a massive death rate

Ours will beat it

We have to wait months for more accurate worldwide figures. Maybe not for a year or more

I'm not saying that as a Tory vote either.

But the fact is Italy reacted quickly yet it didn't stop the deaths

There are so many variables

Italy has an excellent health service as well

This virus isn't going away any time soon. It's attacking certain sections of society. A unique state of affairs

maddyone, I was one of the returners in April, so were my nieces.
We all went into isolation when we arrived.

The people on the plane and in transit in Doha all intended to do the same.
Although we were given no guidance at the airport , not even a leaflet, I would think that a huge proportion of the 18million did the right thing.

We have to wait months for more accurate worldwide figures. Maybe not for a year or more

Why? What will the wait do?

We have the ONS figures published every week, based on death certificates issued. Are you saying that they will be more accurate in a year's time? How could they possibly get more accurate when they are recording actual deaths from actual death certificates?

I think that what you seem to be suggesting is that other countries, being foreigners and therefore not as honest and open as the British, are fiddling their figures. Why on earth would they do that any more than we would?

As it stands, to the week ending 24th April, the ONS recorded 38,400 deaths in excess of the average of deaths normally recorded over the same period. That was just for England and Wales, Scotland & NI have their own registration authorities. With their deaths it comes to over 40,000. These may not have been all directly due to Covid, but they are clearly a direct result of this pandemic. We have the 2nd highest figures in the world. These figures won't be any different in 52 weeks time...

I'm not saying that as a Tory vote either.

As what, then? An apologist for this apalling government?