Opinion : Should foreign holidays be banned this year?

It is possible that soon some form of foreign travel may be allowed following the recent lock down.

Indeed as far as my good self can understand the ‘roadmap out of lockdown’ seems to indicate that foreign travel could re-start in under a fortnights time on Monday 17th May 2021.

The Foreign Office is already reportedly revising the Covid advice for non-essential travel with mentions of several popular foreign holiday destinations being added to the ‘green list’ ready for when international travel is allowed again.

At the moment it seems the virus in the UK is under control, indeed yesterday (Tuesday 4th May 2021) only 5 cases of Covid-19 were officially recorded in High Wycombe and 8 in the whole of Buckinghamshire.

While my good self has no medical qualifications whatsoever (even applying a sticky plaster is a complex operation for someone of my limited intellectual capacity) as I understand it the vaccines administered in the UK could potentially be overwhelmed if the virus was to mutate in a certain way.

A ‘new variant’ of the virus could spell disaster if it could breach the defences created by the current vaccines and our town and the wider country would be back to square one possibly with another lock down implemented until a revised vaccine was formulated and administered.

So is there not a case to extend the ban on non-essential international travel in particular holidays?

It seems this issue has been raised by several members of parliament who are calling on the Government to ‘discourage’ foreign holidays at the current time.

In my opinion it would be foolish to risk all the good work done by the vaccines just for sake of someone taking a summer holiday in a foreign country. If people must have holidays surely it would be better to take a summer break in the UK, after all there are some lovely beaches and sights to see nearer to home without needing the partake in international travel. What’s more by holidaying in the UK it would be supporting our own hoteliers and tourist industry not to mention reducing the damage to the environment caused by the aircraft emissions from foreign travel.

If foreign travel and holidays are allowed then, in my view, those who fly abroad should not be able to access any of the Government pandemic financial support schemes should a ‘new variant’ rise up causing another lockdown.

Is it worth risking a setback in the fight against the virus so a few people can sun themselves on a beach in a foreign country?

What do you think?

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