No matter how hard I try I am sure I could never concoct a story so hilarious as the UK regulations around travel in the age of COVID-19. In fact, almost any of the regulations around COVID-19 have their own comedy value. It is safe to rub shoulders—often literally—with shop assistants in Sainsbury’s but unsafe to eat in a restaurant where social distancing can easily be achieved. It is a safer option for people to sit outside in the pouring rain with a pint of beer than to sit inside, appropriately socially distanced. These two last things were, in fact, safe when the virus was reportedly more of a threat than it is now. No, you couldn’t make it up. And then there are the travel regulations.
We are all aware of the anomaly between locking up a largely healthy population for months on end while people from allegedly high-risk areas of the world poured into the UK by the thousand. And then we were blamed for spreading COVID-19. I took a holiday in Turkey last year, reported in Lockdown Sceptics, where I explained how my wife and I simply walked back into the UK at London Heathrow without challenge or having to show our track and trace forms. That was set against a terrifying list of rules, regulations and dire warnings of what would happen if we failed to turn up without our completed forms.
So, where are we now? Grant Shapps MP Secretary of State for Transport provided us with a list of seventeen countries that, from the middle of May, will be on the ‘Green List’ for travel, the ones with the fewest restrictions. Note that this is not ‘no restrictions’ just the fewest. The list was presented without even a trace of irony in the fact that at least three of the countries on the list do not want us, or anyone, to enter their country. So, that would be fourteen countries Mr Shapps. It was almost as if the Secretary of State did not read the newspapers. Then it became apparent that people can enter the UK from almost anywhere, including countries where the coronavirus is ‘letting rip’. All it means is that some will have fewer restrictions than others. Fair enough you may think, that is as it should be but then it emerges that the triaging of arriving passengers will be done at the point of encounter with the UKBA officials. This means that people arriving from a Green List country can spend hours in the same arrivals hall as people arriving from Red List countries without the slightest effort to segregate them. In those hellish, long, roped and heart-breaking snaking queues so beloved of airport officialdom across the world, the putatively uninfected will encounter those highly likely to be infected repeatedly. It is all very well leaving two metres in front and behind you as we all know that the coronavirus will not dare to cross the rope to the person standing next to you…again. This phenomenon was described by Geoff McDonald in The New European as ‘the Heathrow petri dish’.
As if to make absolutely sure we achieve the maximum risk from infection it is predicted that, with airport delays already long enough, airport officials are warning of delays up to fifteen times as long as usual over the summer. The airline and travel industries are already on their knees and, whether you are a frequent traveller or a member of Extinction Rebellion, these industries provide direct and indirect employment for thousands of people and contribute to our economy and those of other countries. British Airways reported losing £120 per second in the first three months of 2021, thousands of its staff have been made redundant and the UK government simply seems to carry on having a laugh at everyone’s expense. When the never ending COVID comedy show finally ends I would be quite keen to see the movements of Mr Shapps and a few other cabinet colleagues being severely restricted. Perhaps we could have a referendum over whether to send them to Wandsworth, Brixton or Wormwood Scrubs.
Editor-in-Chief | Carl D. Pearson has been involved in British politics and media from an early age, with the key knowledge of what it takes to run a news organisation for the 21st century. Mr Pearson, as Editor-in-chief, is responsible for supervising the daily tasks of publishing media and content to UNN’s website and various platforms.
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