Questions about France
-why was it necessary to create a wholly new travel category?
-especially given cases there are so much lower than here?
-Why wasn’t it announced with the other changes this week?
-if it’s about Beta why not place on the red list altogether?
-why was it necessary to create a wholly new travel category?
-especially given cases there are so much lower than here?
-Why wasn’t it announced with the other changes this week?
-if it’s about Beta why not place on the red list altogether?
-Crucially, this raises the prospect that even with double vaccination, the government may be preventing or disrupting travel for a long time to come. Is that sustainable?
Am also old enough to remember when the briefing from govt was that the traffic light system would end the stop/start uncertainty of last summer...
Looking wider than France for a moment there’s also the total disconnect between UK domestic policy and international travel. UK govt policy domestically is now v light touch- ie to abandon all restrictions because of high % of population vaccinated...
But its policy internationally, towards travel is extremely rigid and tough. To look at international travel policy you’d think we must have v tough restrictions internally- but we don’t. Hence we end up with the oddity of making travel difficult from countries with much lower...
... case rates than our own. That was starting to change with double vaccination travel policy but this change raises the prospect that government could change that for other countries in future too.
And for those who will say, it’s about variants stupid- sure...
And for those who will say, it’s about variants stupid- sure...
...but our high case rates may well itself yield a new variant which evades vaccines.
It’s a puzzle.
It’s a puzzle.
Ie does it make sense to be so concerned about one but not the other?
Not least because the trade offs on easy int travel are as profound as the trade offs domestically: economic damage and significant limitations to individual freedom to travel to see family/for work/holiday.
Not least because the trade offs on easy int travel are as profound as the trade offs domestically: economic damage and significant limitations to individual freedom to travel to see family/for work/holiday.
This email from someone who has barely seen her family in France for the last 18 months reminds us of the human costs associated with frequent changes in border policy. The costs are now enormous, making it unaffordable for poorer families to see loved ones. 
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