UK Government to ban international travel and domestic hotel stays ‘except for work’

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• AndyW says:

  1 Nov1 November 08:00

  I know this news is travel related, and the whole subject certainly extremely decisive, but I do long for the days when articles were not just a load of people having a pop at each other in the comments…

  • Yuff says:

    1 Nov1 November 08:07

    Andy +1
    There are some very opinionated critics on both sides of the fence………unfortunately 😩

    • Adam says:

      1 Nov1 November 08:18

      Yes quite.

  • Josh says:

    1 Nov1 November 09:24

    Indeed. At least Twitter has a 240 character limit 😂

    • Alex Sm says:

      1 Nov1 November 10:27

      280

      • Josh says:

        1 Nov1 November 10:32

        280 then 😂 Ah yes, originally the limit was 140

        • Alex Sm says:

          2 Nov2 November 21:01

          Yes, it was 140, but not 240 🙂

• ringingup says:

  1 Nov1 November 08:29

  I have a self catering stay in the UK, near London, coming up next week, starting before Thursday. The plan was always to just relax and work from somewhere different, enjoy some walks in the proximity of the house, not meet anyone and not go out for meals, etc. So from a personal and societal point of view, the impact was always going to be pretty low.

  How do you think the lockdown will impact stays due to start before Thursday? I’m wondering if a host would be under the obligation of not letting a property during the lockdown period even if the stay began before lockdown.

• Hana says:

  1 Nov1 November 08:30

  Hmm, I was planning to go to Anitgua mid November. I assume BA will be cancelling flights?

  • Anna says:

    1 Nov1 November 09:23

    The devil is going to be in the detail, as they say. I don’t think anything is certain until the measures are voted on on Wednesday. Remember all the issues there were last time – can you drive to your place of exercise, are demonstrations allowed etc? Personally I would be getting in the queue to speak to BA and ask if they have decided yet!

    • Amanda Joness says:

      1 Nov1 November 11:03

      … Ditto… As yet unable to speak to BA.
      I’m guessing they will wait until its all set in stone by debate In Parliament.
      We will have to wait and see.

  • Lady London says:

    1 Nov1 November 14:09

    if a route has cargo on it then its still likely to have flights running. For routes that carry just people then many fewer planes needed to run, which could become zero.with extreme restrictions.

• Henry Young says:

  1 Nov1 November 08:51

  It’s all divide and conquer across multiple dimensions guys. And you keep on sucking it up. Stand back, take a deep breath and look at what’s really happening. Follow the money. Cui bono ? What your government tells you is seldom the truth.

  I don’t aim to give you any answers in saying this, but to at least prompt some of you to rediscover that lost art of “critical thinking”.

  And a warm, heart felt hello to any 77th-ers on this forum – you know who you are 😉

  • Anna says:

    1 Nov1 November 09:04

    Cui bono from the country being bankrupted – do tell?!

  • TripRep says:

    1 Nov1 November 10:10

    Quite literally keyboard warriors?

• Alex says:

  1 Nov1 November 09:32

  Great.. I’m moving to Dubai in a month for work, this could get interesting.

• J says:

  1 Nov1 November 09:47

  Highlighting 2nd December feels like the new ‘it’s only 3 weeks’ we heard a lot of in March. Is there any reason to expect this won’t be extended beyond the initial 4 weeks? I’m assuming it will see us through until at least late January, maybe (but hopefully not) with a short pause for Christmas.

  • Aston100 says:

    1 Nov1 November 09:53

    I’m sure there will be some confusing, contradictory and ill thought out exemption for Christmas to be announced in due course.

    • Chrisasaurus says:

      1 Nov1 November 10:51

      Indeed, except substitute announced for leaked…

    • Lady London says:

      1 Nov1 November 14:11

      +1
      It wont make sense medically but politically there would be much motivation

  • Axel says:

    1 Nov1 November 10:34

    Yep. First time around you could only meet in a park or garden with up to 6 people not from your household after 10 weeks, and non-essential stores only re-opened after 12 weeks.

    In this case that would mean mid-January and the start of February.

    Hopefully it’s ‘just a month’ but I suspect it will be significantly longer.

• David S says:

  1 Nov1 November 09:53

  I’m in Portugal at present and it’s really safe compared to the U.K. despite them sadly now having 4000 cases a day. They publish the rules and at least where we are, they stick to them. It’s a public holiday so no travel is permitted outside the council area you live in. The police do actually put very strong measures in place to enforce it and the fines have been large since the beginning. I’m feeling the urge to do some DIY (I mean work) for a few days. Is work actually defined anywhere in the Boris text ?

  • Anna says:

    1 Nov1 November 10:02

    Work here? You can pretty much carry on as normal if you can’t do your job from home, unless you’re a hairdresser, chef etc. and your business has to close.
    That’s the weak link here – enforcement. In August when my area went into a stricter lockdown than the upcoming one (no mixing outside your own household, full stop), I emailed our MP and the local police chief pointing out that it was very unlikely to work as we have neither the resources nor the appetite to enforce it adequately in this country. Fast forward 2 months and not only have our infection rates not gone down, one of our wards has a jaw-dropping rate of over 1200 per 100,000. I’m not really sure what they are hoping to change with the new measures.

• Matt says:

  1 Nov1 November 10:08

  When people in London are so ignorant there is no hope for any respite on the virus.
  I am travelling for work 3 days a week at the moment and there are so many people refusing to wear masks on public transport it is unbelieveable.
  Another 5 people in my tube carriage last night refusing to wear a mask, on the eve of a second pandemic lock-down.

  Sometimes, when using the overland, I have to walk through the entire length of a 15-carriage train to find an area where people are wearing a mask AND using it to also cover their nose. Sometimes I still can’t find an area on a train that large.

  Zero enforcement/zero fines for people not wearing the mandated masks in a closed environment without ventilation (one stat somewhere said UK had issued only 90 fines for not wearing masks on public transport for the whole of the UK between march and september)?
  Same happening in Supermarkets.

  Travel ban not going to make up for ignorant and selfish people based in UK.
  Until enforcement happens and people start obeying, virus not going anywhere and R rate is not going down.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    1 Nov1 November 10:29

    Focusing on people not wearing masks is so wide of the mark it’s unbelievable.

  • Char Char says:

    1 Nov1 November 10:33

    The non maskers haven’t been wearing a mask since the start and siding that period the virus went down, it is clearly a seasonal virus

    • ChrisBCN says:

      1 Nov1 November 10:59

      Care to direct us to the study that proves the virus is seasonal Char Char? I would be interested to read this, as I’m sure many others would.

      • Char Char says:

        1 Nov1 November 11:54

        You will see in time, then come back and tell everyone you already knew it!

        • Ken says:

          1 Nov1 November 16:57

          Is there different seasonality to COVID in the Southern Hemisphere?
          Is it starting to disappear in South America as they head towards summer ?
          Did it improve in Iran when it was 40C a few months ago ?
          Surely you have some evidence of this.

        • Jayne says:

          1 Nov1 November 20:26

          @Char Char. Pathetic.

      • ChrisBCN says:

        1 Nov1 November 12:05

        You mean you don’t have a link to a study?

        • Char Char says:

          1 Nov1 November 14:34

          I said clearly its seasonal not that I have a study, if you require studies on a current event I will need to come back to your after.

        • ChrisBCN says:

          1 Nov1 November 19:22

          You must have SOMETHING which makes you state as fact it’s seasonal, no? I’m curious to see it.

  • Josh says:

    1 Nov1 November 10:34

    Some of those you saw may have an exemption from wearing a mask.

    • Matt says:

      1 Nov1 November 11:01

      A group of 10 friends came and sat next to me on Monday all refusing to wear masks – must be an unlucky bunch if they all have viable health reasons to not wear a mask, ha ha.

      And the medical advice and educated studies are very clear – Have ventilation to move the air, or if not possible (underground) have all people wear masks to stop transmission. Key is that BOTH people wear masks as it is more effective when the sick person is wearing it to stop transmission.

      Surprised anybody is challenging that basic advice which is accepted globally…

  • Rob says:

    1 Nov1 November 10:37

    Whilst I’m not a doctor, I would suggest that walking through a 15-carriage enclosed train where people are not wearing masks puts you at substantially more risk than just sitting down wherever you got on 🙂

    • Jonathan says:

      1 Nov1 November 10:57

      I am a doctor & agree that non FFP3 masks almost certainly make minimal difference but when weighing up the risks/benefits any minor benefit outweighs the non-existant risk & minimal discomfort of wearing one. Obviously there are those who think a mask makes them invincible & engage in riskier behaviour as a result but that’s a personal decision with personal consequences.

      The circumstantial evidence from countries where mask wearing is more prevalent probably related to their much more rule respecting/general society>individual mindsets.

      On the wider lockdown/tier restrictions I’m in agreement they have been patchy & illogical at times but as someone on the frontline now it’s very clear we’re at the point where there’s no debate about needing strong action now. The hospital I work at in Yorkshire has been really struggling this week & that’s a feeling mirrored by colleagues over the wider NE/NW/Midlands.

      What is really concerning is that the action proposed yesterday won’t show up as an easing in pressure for another 2-3 weeks so there’s worse to come. When we get hit with a tidal wave of sick patients people die who wouldn’t otherwise & it impacts non Covid mortality (cancer, heart disease etc.) as well.

      The lockdown won’t end the pandemic but it does buy time for a vaccine (which I’m very confident about) & better testing (point of care pregnancy test style) to role out. Forget your opinions/scepticism & just suck it up for 4 weeks!

      • Josh says:

        1 Nov1 November 11:16

        I agree.

      • Anna says:

        1 Nov1 November 11:29

        Always interesting to hear a medical point of view. From a law enforcement angle I know that some people will always try and get away with not adhering to the rules and the current situation is no exception. There was a news report last week where a nurse was being interviewed and said she was facilitating patient-family contact via Zoom and there were over 40 people in one room all huddled round the computer completely ignoring social distancing guidelines! This kind of scenario must surely be responsible for more infections than having a meal in a restaurant with your partner!

  • Harry T says:

    1 Nov1 November 11:10

    The important thing is that the majority are wearing masks. I’m far more troubled by the tables in Soho packed with customers who are clearly from multiple households.

    I would however support greater enforcement of mask wearing, as I think the majority of people not wearing a mask do not have an exemption.

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