George
It might be considered a minor issue, but I see this as yet another example of a clumsy and regrettably familiar response by our Government when announcing the closing of our borders. On Saturday it was announced by our PM that our borders were to be closed at midnight Sunday. Travellers arriving after this time would be required to self isolate for 14 days. Then, hours later, the time was extended to 1.00am Monday. The question must be asked: when discussing this proposal, did anyone think to look up the arrivals schedules at our airports? Obviously not. Did anyone consider the fact that many of these passengers were already in transit and had become the victims of another ill-timed regulation by this hopeless Government?
When has someone arrived in the country? When the plane is on the tarmac? When they are going through customs? Or is it when they appear at the exit point at arrivals? Could the queue waiting for customs clearance be intercepted at midnight with half the passengers being required to self-isolate because their flight arrived a few minutes later than the flight which carried those further up the queue?
This may be considered inconsequential but if I were one of the passengers arriving on the last flight at 12.30 am, I would be furious. There is usually a four-hour gap between the last flight of the day and the first incoming flight the next morning. A very logical call would have been that the passengers required to self isolate would do so when these flights commenced later in the morning. A very obvious gap in airport activity. A very logical assessment to make. But not for these fools. The best interventions in the world? Except they continue to get it wrong and have to correct their stupidity a few hours later because they didn’t assess the situation correctly. Why couldn’t they give a 48-hour lead-in so those who had scheduled a visit would be in a position to postpone their trip? And this Government expects us to trust them!
Have you noticed that the PM is using the “I” word with authority? “I will quarantine those who don’t self isolate”. I am in charge, not us or we. We all know she is at the extreme lower end of the intervention team when these decisions are made. She is the mouthpiece, nothing more, nothing less. But we can’t have a pandemic without political self-promotion, can we?