© Simon CalderDanger zone? St Julianโs in Malta, which may be added to the โgreen listโ on Thursday
The media minister has said that "people who are important" should be entitled to avoid tough quarantine rules when travelling to the UK.
Speaking on Sky News,
John Whittingdale was asked why players, officials and others coming to London for the Euros final on 11 July should be allowed in without self-isolating.
He said: "We've always said that for some people who are important, players, for instance ..."
The presenter,
Kay Burley, interrupted him, saying:
"So people who want to go on holiday are not important. Is that what you're saying?""No of course not. We're talking a very limited number of people who are coming in and they're also subject still to quite significant restrictions.
"They're not just able to travel around Britain. They come in to attend a match then go away again.
"We wouldn't have been able to host the tournament at Wembley if we hadn't allowed the players and people associated with the teams to come in and do so."
Mr Whittingdale was speaking as travel industry leaders gather in London for a day of action in protest at the quarantine rules on returning to the UK which, they say, amount to a ban on international travel.Ministers are due to decide on Thursday what changes to make to the changes to the red, amber and green lists - the last of which is the only group of countries from which travel to the UK is permitted without quarantine.
At present the only feasible holiday destinations from the UK are Gibraltar and Iceland.
The media minister said: "We have said that we will be looking later in the week to make revisions to the
green list, and I hope that we can put more countries on to it.
"I quite understand why people want to go on their holidays.
"I would say to them, you can have a great holiday in Britain and I think a very large number of people will decide this year that that's what they will do."
He said he could "understand the frustration" of travel industry leaders who have announced legal action against government decisions on international travel.
The UK has far higher infection rates than popular holiday destinations, including Malta, Italy, Spain, France, Greece - and Portugal, which was moved from green to amber in the last review.
"We were forced, sadly, to put Portugal temporarily back on to the amber list because of the case rate there," Mr Whittingdale said.
"These are expert decisions by the scientists. They make recommendations to government and it takes account of a range of factors."
Mr Whittingdale played down hopes of an early decision for fully vaccinated travellers to avoid quarantine, saying only: "I hope it may even be possible in due course to relax for example restrictions for people who for instance have had two vaccines.
"But these are things that are being kept under constant examination.
"When we feel it is safe to make those changes, then we will do so."
The minister claimed: "We are way ahead of any other country in Europe in terms of the proportion of our population who are vaccinated and that offers a degree of protection."
In fact, Malta has vaccinated a significantly higher proportion of its people than the UK.
Reader Comments
11th June to 23rd June - Group matches - 25% capacity
26th June to 29th June - Last 16 - 50% capacity
6th July to 7th July - Semi-Finals - 75% capacity
11th July - Final - tbc but hoping for 100% capacity
After that it will be back to full lockdown as if Euro 2020 had never happened
Those who help the rich, stay rich and stay in control, are IMPORTANT.
Those who live ordinary lives, help each other, have families and try to maintain healthy modest communities are UNIMPORTANT.
Yeah....
ned,
out
I had assumed all the players at the Euro 2020 tournament would have been jabbed - I wonder if they are lying about the players not being vaccinated
If the players have not been vaccinated, I think it's legitimate to ask why not. These people get the absolute best medical care, no expense spared. Given they were all about to embark on a grand European tour for this tournament, mixing with people all over Europe, why were they, allegedly, not vaccinated?
I would think that TPTB would have thought about what it would look like if everyone's favourite sports stars started dropping like flies and gave them saline instead. The ol switcheroo. At least to the more famous among them.
I saw on sky sports news that the F1 will go ahead in July with full capacity crowds in attendance, yet it was deemed too dangerous to open up the country fully to us common folk. Silverstone capacity is 140,000! Yet 30 people in the pub is dangerous, mere weeks apart. The Euro's are letting corporate sponsors and VIPs come from any country and miss the quarantine. That's 2,500 people that are virus proof because they work for Coca-Cola and the like.
Its way past a joke, now.
What an ass! I'd pay $100 to bitch slap the SOB, and it wouldn't be no pussy slap like Micron recently got.
"You're such a frickin pu-" [Link]
R.C.
RC