The natural cynic in me can’t help but
suspect that those opposition politicians criticising the UK government for imposing
a sudden self-isolation requirement on people returning from Spain would have
been equally critical had the government given 14 days’ notice of its intention
to do so. They certainly seem to be the same people who complained about the
government being so tardy in implementing any form of quarantine previously. It
seems to me that the swiftness of the action on this occasion is just about the
first time that the government have got something right (although it will doubtlessly
be inconvenient, to say the least, for those affected by the decision). The bigger
problem, in terms of public health, is the weak, half-hearted and poorly enforced
nature of the restrictions being imposed, which allow those coming from areas
of high infection to travel home from the airport by public transport as long
as they ‘promise’ to stay at home for a fortnight, coupled with the absence of
any support for employers who then potentially lose employees for a fortnight.
The even bigger cynic in me wondered why
the government was able to act so quickly and effectively on this occasion,
having failed to do so in the past. Could his own department really be that
anxious to keep the Transport
Secretary out of the way for an extra two weeks? I can’t say that I’d blame
them, mind…
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1 comment:
Keeping Shapps out of the loop for 14 days - no big deal. His laziness is evident from his lack of real grasp of his brief. Man is almost as useless as Greyling ! So the rest of the ministerial group will muddle along with one less blunderer on the team. John Crace commented a few days ago that these were a second rate cabinet and some comments questioned why he rated them so highly !
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