I would respect your opinion even more if you were willing to stand up for your beliefs, rather than simply trying to gauge if you will be caught.

Australians have been banned from leaving the country for nearly a year and that looks like it will be extended. We're nothing in comparison to that.

From Sky news, (but where are we placed in the world for vaccine rollout is it 3rd, ironic that):


Britain has the most severe lockdown in the developed world, according to figures compiled by Oxford University

The Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker, which compares the COVID-19 restrictions imposed in countries around the world, puts the UK's overall level of strictness at 86.1, on a scale of 0 to 100, where 100 is the strictest possible set of measures, writes data editor Ed Conway.

That means the UK has the highest level of restrictions among OECD and G20 nations - the broadest definition of the developed world. It has the fifth highest levels of restrictions in the world, after Cuba, Eritrea, Honduras and Lebanon.

The Oxford tracker, compiled by the Blavatnik School of Government, attempts to take everything from travel restrictions to school closures and compile them into an index. While this method is fraught with difficulties, it remains one of the few methods of comparing lockdown severity between nations.

I kind of feel like that was a dare to book a flight to Male for tomorrow.

Yes but they're following a zero Covid policy, I've been told we're not.

Yes, that is very true, but the problem is the flow is now all over the place. So there will be an amendment to an amendment to the original SI and gets very tricky to get the overall picture. So take the self isolation / managed isoltion requirements, there was an amendment that specifically allowed transit passengers to avoid this, even if it meant switching between say LHR and LGW. But that amendment didn't change a separate amendment of an amendment, which mandated booking tests on day 2 and 8 - these are required even if you are not in the country. Which is bonkers, I think the edifice got so over-wrought that they didn't notice it. If you had a clean baseline SI then it would much clearer and easier to enforce.

I'm watching with keen interest what's about to happen in Italy. There, as you said, the government has banned travellers from the UK unless they're returning residents. The rule was introduced on December 23rd and should be revised on or around March 5th: it'll be interesting to see what's happening at that time. Right now the press, there, has whipped itself in a frenzy with regards to the "English variant"...

Yes, my MO was to carry the legislation printed in my car glovebox in case the Police were trying to be funny and I could quote from the legislation why I believe I am in the right, but the SI's are getting very confusing now. Luckily I've never been stopped or challenged by the Police except to please move on if I don't mind which is fine by me.

France is already allowing hauliers in without a test if they are in the UK less than 48 hours which changed yesterday so looks like the UK is slowly slowly getting out of the pariah of the world phase!

Yes, I potentially have business travel second half of March and would very much like to be there in person (for those wondering if this is actually essential, it is part of a criminal proceeding in Italy where all other parties and counsel involved would be sitting in a room with government officials).

I realise this is probably for the other thread, but after looking at it again yesterday logically it does follow:

- schedule 2 part 2 states people who do not have to comply with regulation 4, and this now include transit passengers as noted in section 5
- regulation 4 is the requirement to self isolate from non red list countries, and also the requirement for managed quarantine from red list countries (sch. B1A)
- the requirement to book a day 2&8 test package is in new regulation 3B, and this applies to anyone who must self isolate or do managed quarantine under regulation 4

So by definition, generally if you are not required to self isolate or do managed quarantine under regulation 4, you are not required to book a day 2&8 test package.

I appreciate a simpler way could have been found to make this clear. Also it is very hard to understand this until the amendments from the amending SI are incorporated in to the parent SI so it is often difficult to spot on the day the amending SI is published.

Unfortunately, the only way to get a consolidated set of regs (officially at least) is to revoke and re-lay. I suspect this isn’t high up the list of priorities for how to spend time.

OK, that's frankly stupid. I understand a two-hour transit airside, but 48 hours? I'm not a fan of Priti's hotel prisons, or the new rules that the Dutch introduced for testing on the day but this is the pendulum swinging on the opposite side. I mean, a lateral flow test takes, what, 20 minutes?

I'm selling a flat down there and right now I'm facing the choice of doing everything remotely (which includes FedExing keys, going to the consulate to notarize a power of attorney letter, finding somebody who can dispose/recycle the contents of said flat) or going down there myself and doing the needful. As much as I don't like testing if I'm to do it all from here I'll probably avoid a small chance of getting Covid for a very fat chance of getting a heart attack.

Drove 25 miles yesterday for a walk, passed a police car on the way home, if they're doing number plate checks they would have known we weren't local, not stopped obviously.

Hasn't the Italian government made that decision for you? I thought it was a complete no-exceptions ban for non-residents coming from the UK (absent a 14 day stay somewhere else)?

And fully agree with you on the testing for haulers. This is the type of thing we should have in place.