But this summer saga is no laughing matter for the thousands of normal Brits who were looking forward to a fortnight in the sun after the four-month lockdown.
It is also clear that Boris hasn’t really got a grip on this situation and unless he does get hold of this in the next few days he will wreck the airline and tourist industry as well as many of our summer plans.
Pulling the Rug Out
What was the point of bailing BA out with millions of our cash and giving out loans to easyJet and their rivals if he then pulls the rug out from beneath them with little or no notice?
Where’s the joined-up policy? Where’s the roadmap, Boris? Just who is in charge?
Well it’s clearly not transport secretary, Grant Shapps, who flew out to Spain on holiday and now faces a 14-day quarantine when he gets back!
He flew out to Spain on Saturday fully aware (he was actually in the meeting) that the travel ban could be imposed on Sunday. Now he’s coming back “to help out the Government” and I assume to avoid the public backlash too!
More important than him, did no one consider the plight of people who were already in Spain? Did it really have to be imposed straight away? Why are Islands like Tenerife, thousands of miles away from mainland Spain, included in this wrecking ball of a policy?
Now they issue an edict that all holiday destinations are under threat of an immediate lockdown. They now are saying “that no travel is risk free.” This is crazy and hypocritical advice just weeks after telling us to spend, spend, spend like a lottery winner on speed to save the economy.
Treating us as Mushrooms
They could have said weeks ago that summer is effectively cancelled but that of course would not have fitted in with their ‘treat the population like mushrooms, and keep them in the dark as much as possible’ policy.
They have treated us, the UK population with disdain right from the beginning of this pandemic. Never once admitting their mistakes and hiding behind the soundbite of ‘we are following the science.’
This is the political equivalent of parents telling kids that they had better be on their best behaviour and do their chores or Father Christmas won’t come…and the worst thing is we have fallen for this clap trap.
Passing the Buck
Do you see what they are doing here? They are shoving the responsibility back on to us again, just as they did with lifting the lockdown in the UK. If the infection rate goes up again it will be our fault for not social distancing in the boozer, not their complete inept and woefully slow reaction to the threat of Coronavirus.
Instead of worrying about stopping us going to the Canaries, Boris should be asking why the sweatshops of Leicester and other towns have been allowed to ignore and flout the lockdown rules that the rest of us largely followed?
Just where is the £1000 fine for the Mayor of Luton who broke the rules to have a party? Are they too busy to impose these sanctions on people like him whilst they are targeting a working-class sunburnt family returning from Benidorm?
Of course, public health and safety has to come first but what a shame they didn’t seem to think like that back in March when they allowed Cheltenham to happen.
What a pity they didn’t put our citizens public health first when they carried on letting in flights to our airports from Coronavirus hotspots that even included China and Italy.
I know Boris now wants us to lose weight and get fit but he was incredibly slow off the blocks on tackling the very real threat of Covid 19.
Whilst other countries were locking down and making their borders even more secure and stopping all flights coming in we were still operating our ‘let them all in policy’ with no health checks in the arrival terminals.
At the same time, we were being told masks were not necessary and that we were going to have a world beating track and trace app. 11.8 Million pounds later, the app has been dropped quicker than Boris’ weight and we are the sick man of Europe.
A Sick Joke
I’ve said it before and I am going to say it again we are being used as lab rats to emerge from our lockdown homes to see if it is safe to go to pubs and restaurants and shop on the dying high street.
Bribing us out of homes by offering us £10 quid off a burger, pizza or some other ultra-processed junk food whilst simultaneously telling us to lose weight is also a joke, a very sick joke.
Instead of trying to divert our attention from the inept handling of the pandemic Boris should be offering cash for people to buy real food and cook from scratch.
You are never going to solve the obesity crisis by getting the sugar pushers like burger joints and pubs to put the calorie counts on their products. We need to get back to basics and bring back proper cooking lessons in our schools and instead of dishing out a free month via the doctor to join weight watchers we need to educate and subsidise real food and vegetables.
Instead of joining a cycling spinning class Boris is just spinning again. It now emerges according to the Times that the TV junk food advertising ban is at least 2 years away and pray tell me how this cycle repair voucher will be operated?
Boris is full of bluster and something else beginning with B and ending in T and in normal times we would probably forgive him. After all we loved him on that zipwire didn’t we?!
However, these are dark times, really dark times and what we need now is real leadership and real clarity of policy and Boris needs to understand the buck really does stop with him.
