Boris Johnson’s cabinet is starting to look rather like a flatpack number which was put together by someone who thought they knew all about DIY but in fact should have left it to a professional, or at least perhaps asked a third party for advice, Spain for example.
But no, as Michael Portillo once told me, Britain has always had a problem with looking to Europe for help and perhaps better models to adopt, be it from education to health. Now, as the UK enters its quarantine phase for travellers arriving in the UK, be they nationals or not, Johnson’s government is taking a massive gamble.
There have been rumours that there is a school of thought that such a move would help to boost domestic tourism, staycations. It might, but we all know the Britons love to travel and judging by all the latest market research they are determined to jet away to a sunny beach at some point before winter sets in and, as I’ve mentioned, Spain, including the Balearics, is top of the list.
So, while a large number of Britons are planning on flying overseas, it will be interesting to see just how the thought of two weeks’ quarantine sits with foreigners who were planning on visiting the UK. Not very well I would think. What the government has done is put a double squeeze on the airlines and the travel industry by deterring people from flying in or out of the UK.