Forum Topic

Austria, Germany, Latvia, Norway, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia  being moved to green travel list

According to Sky news:"Austria, Germany, Latvia, Norway, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia are being moved to green travel list from 4am Sunday while India, Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE are being moved to the amber travel list"What is the difference between Sunday at 3:59 and 4am is my question?For example people arriving say 2am - do they hang around for 2 hours??

Ed Robinson ● 1643d17 Comments

Andy, I agree. They knew they were taking a risk and frankly shouldn’t be making unnecessary international trips during a pandemic. Staycations can be expensive and the weather spectacularly unreliable but they surely make better sense right now. The one thing we know for sure about the Covid travel rules is that they keep changing - and at short notice too!There’s also the small matter of the climate emergency and sooner or later the cost of overseas travel, or certainly overseas flights, is going to go up. Dramatically, if we’re going to change the way things are going

Jonathan Callaway ● 1641d

Yes Andy, I do agree with you, but I suppose when your younger you have more of a need to go somewhere.

Barbara Stevens ● 1642d

Not sure I feel too sorry for them. They must have known there was a risk of this happening during a worldwide pandemic and based on the last 6 months of stop go border restrictions and quarantine.

Andy Pike ● 1642d

Now everybody has got to leave Mexico by a certain date. Is it worth going abroad it must be so upsetting for them, with children as well.

Barbara Stevens ● 1642d

Ha ha, Ed. Don't worry, their personal phone security is probably so lax that Fancy Bear or some other Russian hacking group is probably doing a deal to sell the contents to a newspaper :-)

Michael Ixer ● 1642d

Michael,"the main thing is clarity of how the categorisation is determined and changes arrived at"It was probably stored on someones' phone and has since been destroyed :)

Ed Robinson ● 1642d

That's what I meant Ed, although perhaps algorithm or indicators would have been a better choice of word than parameters? Or perhaps they all apply! Yes, at present it seems to be a finger in the air guesstimate before putting a Post-It not in a coloured box on a flip chart ...  the main thing is clarity of how the categorisation is determined and changes arrived at - which would imply documenting it?

Michael Ixer ● 1642d

"traffic light colour framework"Michael, unless there is some documented measures behind it - donkey and tail come to mind.Andy - Scotland an NI haven't done particularly well during this pandemic.

Ed Robinson ● 1642d

Seemingly not just our govt but those of Scotland and N ireland as well

Andy Pike ● 1643d

Andy. Can't speak for Ed but from what I see the issue seems to be a lack of clarity around the parameters for determining the traffic light colour framework and which metrics have been used to position countries within the framework? Perhaps I've not been following it closely enough as I don't have any reason to travel abroad at the moment, although it would be nice to see some friends and relations outside of the UK, I'll stick to the UK at the moment.  Obviously some have business or family reasons that make travel essential.Ps - do I have to check the new Highway Code for the meaning of a new "Amber Plus" light? :-)

Michael Ixer ● 1643d

Andy,if restrictions are being lifted when there is no change in covid cases (which seems illogical but that aside) then the change should be made as soon as possible.It shouldn't take serval days to tell border force to stop doing something.Why inconvenience people from here till Sunday 4am just because the government and border force can't gey their act together.Michael how long has this been going on for? You should know there is no strategy by now. Unlike New Zealand we do not have a competent leader in opposition never mind government!

Ed Robinson ● 1643d

Ed. Yes, I'd agree it is arbitrary. As I said 4am appears to be a nominal time to coincide with no or few arrivals. I'd consider it being done for administrative convenience rather than any scientific logic? And, yes, like much this government does the traffic light system seems chaotic but admittedly not an easy issue to deal with. However, one would have thought they could understand the difference between European and overseas French departments ... There's always the Australian and New Zealand option of more or less stopping all entries?

Michael Ixer ● 1643d

So what would your plan be Ed

Andy Pike ● 1643d

Quite right Freddie,Looking at India for example there appears to be no change for the last month. Same for Solebia ,Slovakia and Norway that I checked. If anything cases are on the increase.Just made-up arbitrary rules that impact ordinary people.

Ed Robinson ● 1643d

Michael,We still get long haul flights landing early hours which is not applicable in the destinations above.European scheduled flights can arrive close to midnight sometimes later when delayed.The rules were dependent upon where you were in the last 10 days (different rules for the 4 nations of the UK of course).Surely the people arriving on Sunday would have been in non-green countries as the countries only turn green on Sunday :-)What a mess!"What you must do when you arrive in England from abroad depends on where you have been in the 10 days before you arrive."https://www.gov.uk/guidance/red-amber-and-green-list-rules-for-entering-england

Ed Robinson ● 1643d

Same argument could be made whatever the time.

Freddie Francis ● 1643d

I thought 4am was a nominal time when UK airports weren't operating and no incoming flights were scheduled to arrive so all passengers would be cleared from airside areas? But that's a guess ...

Michael Ixer ● 1643d