Summer holidays in Spain – quarantine guaranteed …

Oh dear oh dear oh dear oh dear! It hurts, doesn’t it: government acts quickly to ‘save’ the nation from another CV-19 spike (or is it a 2nd wave?) and – it’s the wrong decision! This is about a quarantine now imposed on Brits returning from their summer holiday in Spain. There are other announcements from government which are far more worrying but which the departments involved probably hoped to smuggle past our attention thanks to the quarantine outcry.

The most inane announcement comes from Hancock and the Dept of Health. It’s in support of that ‘fight against fat’, decreed to be a national necessity by Johnson because being obese means you’ll die of CV-19. Funny that there have been no outcries about the horrors of ‘fat-shaming’, btw. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I read what Hancock wrote in the DT:

“If everyone who is overweight lost 5 lbs, it could save the NHS over £100million over the next five years. And more importantly, given the link between obesity and coronavirus, losing weight could be life-saving.” (paywalled link)

Blimey! But don’t worry: you will pay for the obese to lose weight because GPs will prescribe Weight Watchers diet plans to tackle the problem. After all, who pays for ‘Our Free NHS’? Exactly! But it’s not about the country becoming a ‘nanny state’, oh no it isn’t, it’s just everybody having ‘to do their bit’, according to the PM, to make us slim and ‘save the NHS’:

“Mr Johnson said: “Losing weight is hard but with some small changes we can all feel fitter and healthier. If we all do our bit, we can reduce our health risks and protect ourselves against coronavirus — as well as taking pressure off the NHS.” (link, paywalled)

There it is, again: ‘Protect Our NHS’, now with bans on adverts for junk food, new labelling to warn of deadly calories, the lot. Naturally, we were immediately informed that obesity is due to poverty – Labour has been quiet about this, so far – and an ‘analysis’ in The Times has of course another ‘scare graph’, showing that hospital admissions with obesity as primary or secondary factor has risen since 2012. And then there’s this:

“The Royal College of Physicians is among those who say obesity should be considered a chronic disease, rather than a lifestyle problem. That would combat stigma, they say, and unlock more NHS support for those with obesity.” (link, paywalled)

One doesn’t need to be a genius to predict that ‘a chronic disease’ must be treated by ‘Our NHS’ and that means they need more money. It also means that ‘Our NHS Government’, with the help of ‘Our MSM, is turning us into a nation of  hypochondriacs who are either going to be obsessed with catching CV-19 or being fat.

The nice point about this is that “we” are helpless: being fat is no longer our fault it’s an illness. The upsetting point is that this latest campaign will be swallowed by the general public because our compliance with Lockdown and mask-wearing has shown that “we” will do anything the nanny state tells us to, to keep us ‘healthy’.

Why government simply doesn’t go for food rationing is a mystery. Perhaps it’ll come in time for Christmas – after all, rationing cards will have to be printed first. It might even help to squash our online food orders.

And so to Spain: why are ‘Our MSM’ and the great British holidaymakers now upset about that latest quarantine regulation? Is it because the Foreign Office imposed it at the weekend, with no warning? Even poor old Grant Shapps, on holidays in Spain, was caught out cold.

Is this another item to add to the list of the CV-19 bungleathon? Or shouldn’t our fear & hysteria promoting MSM congratulate the government for having acted so decisively? Here’s one traveller’s moan:

“They encouraged people to go on holiday three weeks ago when we booked it, and if they encourage people to go on holiday they should at least give people a fair warning if they’re going to change the situation.” (paywalled link)

Nothing must come between a Brit and his summer holiday in Spain, not even CV-19! Government ought to have foreseen that increase in new cases, oughtn’t they! However, this is a lovely little example of ‘hoist with their own petard’, equally applicable to travellers to Spain and other destinations and to ‘Our MSM’. 

It’s about ‘case numbers’ again, with no reference to actual hospital admissions, never mind deaths. Case numbers in Spain were rising at the end of last week and, according to reports on Friday, France actually demanded Spain to close border regions in Andorra, Navarre and Catalonia:

“France has called on Spain to severely limit border crossings following a rise in infection rates in the neighbouring country. […]The move came after cases of coronavirus soared in three Spanish regions close to the border. […] There were 547 cases of coronavirus detected in Aragon and Catalonia together on Thursday.” (paywalled link)

Yeah verily: ‘detect cases’ thanks to testing, panic, and scream for another Lockdown. While Macron seems to want Spain to ‘do the dirty’, “we” are imposing a quarantine although it seems odd that ‘Our MSM’ aren’t celebrating Mr Raab for acting decisively:

“Mr Raab said the Government would not apologise for failing to give notice as “the data we got was on the Friday, it showed a big jump right across mainland Spain”.” (paywalled link)

Apparently, ‘Our MSM’ prefer to blame the unfortunate Mr Shapps for ‘having allowed’ the travel restrictions to be lifted in the first place. Labour naturally “described the government’s handling of the affair as “shambolic” (link, paywalled). I wonder what Labour and ‘Our MSM’ would’ve said had Mr Raab not immediately imposed such quarantine. Btw, it’s not only Raab and Shapps being in the firing line, Ms Sturgeon across the border is as well:

“Nicola Sturgeon is under pressure to justify her “shambolic” decision to reimpose quarantine restrictions on travellers from Spain only three days after lifting them. Willie Rennie, the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, said holidaymakers “are paying the price” for the about-turn and warned they could be left in a “very difficult position with their employers” upon their return.” (paywalled link)

It’s not just holidaymakers ‘paying the price’ – the whole holiday industry is now fearful that people won’t travel to foreing destinations. Well, that’s what happens when policy decisions are made based on the fear & hysteria reports in ‘Our MSM’. After all, “we” must guard against holidaymakers importing CV-19 back into this country, mustn’t we, and not just from Spain, it seems:

“On Friday France, which has not closed its border with Spain, recorded 1,130 new cases, almost three times the average at the start of last month. In the past two weeks Croatia has recorded three times as many cases per head of population as Britain.” (link, paywalled)

So better be prepared when venturing out on holidays! The Times has an editorial about this sudden quarantine which looks very reasonable as they admonish the critics of that sudden imposition of quarantine. I see this as a first sign for demanding that ‘we’re all in this together – let’s have a government of National Unity’:

“Those responses would be unfair. The government has sustained criticism in the coronavirus crisis for acting too late. This time it acted decisively on being presented with evidence that it was necessary. In overcoming a once-in-a-generation threat to public health, extraordinary measures are necessary. The government should be prepared to enact them, the opposition to support them, and the public to adhere to them.” (link, paywalled)

And finally: as “we” are being prepared for more quarantines (that’s the personalised version of Lockdown) and as some people are complying with the mask-law while many others are staying away, shunning the High Street and buying more online, the Treasury has come up with their latest tax proposal.

Online Shopping, it would seem, must be penalised so that we’ll trudge back to shopping in the High Street in order to get us ‘back to the new normal’, mask-wearing and all.  So far, it’s straws in the wind, but it’s better to be aware of what’s coming:

“The chancellor is examining proposals for an online sales tax to provide a “sustainable and meaningful revenue source for the government” and help bricks-and-mortar retailers to compete. In a call for evidence published last week, the Treasury […] said that the coronavirus crisis “has had a significant impact on how business is done” and that the government must act to make sure that “the tax system raises sufficient revenue”.” (link, paywalled)

It was Ronald Reagan who described it best: “If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.” Sounds familiar, doesn’t it! I predict that ‘Our MSM’ will support this – it’s after all a time when ‘extraordinary measures’ are necessary.

It doesn’t seem to occur to those Treasury geniuses that Lockdown has shown many people that they can actually do without buying a lot of tat. Perhaps they’ll now restrict all their shopping to just ordering their groceries online and stop buying things altogether. Wasn’t ‘Mend and Make Do’ another great WWII slogan? 

I leave you with a piece of heart-warming news which was picked up by ‘Our MSM’, across the board. On Friday, a St Bernard was rescued from Scafell Pike – she couldn’t’ or wouldn’t move on the way down. ‘Our MSM’ have now plastered that local story across their pages – see e.g. here, with photo. Doesn’t that make you go ‘aaahhhh’, first thing on Monday morning …!

KBO!