THOSE OF US WITH BOATS IN THE MED

Hooligan

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Italy is opening up on June 4 th and encouraging people to come. The only problem is our government seems to be using corona virus as a bargaining chip for Brexit. So whether Brits can travel practically is going to be the issue. I am increasingly confident that for those who can get out to their boats or are already there, the July and August boating experience is going to better than anyone could have hoped for. And given the noises from the areas of the U.K. such as Cornwall or Cumbria who clearly don’t wish to see anyone, the chances of a decent holiday abroad are quite appealing.
 

MapisM

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Italy is opening up on June 4 th and encouraging people to come.
I wouldn't put it that way.
Sure, any Country where the tourism industry is crucial would be more than happy to limit the inevitable economic damages. But if there's one thing that it would be unfair to tell about IT, it's that health is being sacrificed to economic reasons - if anything, the opposite is true, in fact.

Firstly, according to the current plan, what will be liberalized on June 4th are only the movements across Regions within Italy, which at the moment are still forbidden. And by forbidden, I mean it - not a matter of suggesting/recommending/whatever: depending on the circumstances, violators can be subject not only to high fines, but also criminal charges.

Secondly, it still isn't 100% finalized if, to which extent, and between which Countries also cross-border movements will be liberalized on that date.
It's likely that Schengen area will be, but exceptions (both limiting and enlarging) are still possible.

Thirdly, each Region within Italy will be allowed to define local further restrictions - and this is a work in progress, as I'm writing.

And lastly, it was already declared that at the first signs of a second outbreak, a new lockdown would be enforced PDQ.
Though this isn't a concern for any foreigner, who would be in any case allowed to come back home - as it has always been, also during the first lockdown.

Now, I fully understand that this is not what anyone planning a holiday trip would want to hear.
Myself and my wife are used to arrange long winter trips with home exchange, and we normally plan them several months in advance - up to almost a year, sometimes! So, in this respect, we are as annoyed as everyone else.
Otoh, if there's one thing which is clear by now, is that there's no magic wand with this sh!t, and I have a funny feeling that even Trump is beginning to understand that even in the US nobody is trusting his wishful thinking anymore.
Bottom line, we'd better get used to change our habits for a while, and accept to shorten our planning horizons a lot, whether we like it or not.
 

mcanderson

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FFS 14 quarantine from 8 June for people arriving into the U.K. via any means. Seriously another knee jerk. If Italy can reopen its borders then surely the U.K. can consider it’s position as so unique.
 

mcanderson

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If the U.K. doesn’t want an airline industry then why not.

I don’t buy the keep UK money in the U.K. as strangely enough those funny little tourist people that use to be flocking around London and Edinburgh when we lived there didn’t sound very British most of the time.
 

Portofino

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FFS 14 quarantine from 8 June for people arriving into the U.K. via any means. Seriously another knee jerk. If Italy can reopen its borders then surely the U.K. can consider it’s position as so unique.
Hurts the Fr the 500 K living / working in London ......gives us leverage in Brexit talks forces them down to the wire .

Or less crowds of Brits swarming about the place because they are put off going .
Leave them on Southend beach they seem to like that . :)

Seriously it’s the biology first ......over the tourist economy like in the Med .Darwinism is a given it can,t be cheated .

As I said there is still a lot of unknowns with this virus and Brits tend to travel WW and some places like India etc will struggle with it and it too complicated judging each arrivals by a case by case basis .So blanket policy .
I predict by September ( school term ) it will be different , the quarantine criteria .


Just need to work out if you can 9iss off back to Europe inside 14 days .

As I write this thus far we have no effective therapy or vaccine .Sure not for want of trying and huge collaboration world wide .
But the results are Zilch . I still think and hope it will fizzle out in the UK and other EU states with the odd flare ups less so with quarantine.

Still the Elephant in the room is the Fr opening up there borders esp the Chunnel .
 

julians

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Hoping they will come to agreements with France, Spain, Italy, Germany (or maybe whole of eu) to allow travel with no quarantine, it requires us to have roughly the same levels of infection as those countries.
 

mcanderson

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Porto,

We may never know everything about this virus, but sooner or later we have to ask if the economic impact is worth it. Malaria will kill more people this year over a much more evenly spread population baseline, yet we still continue to accept that. I know it is not a like for like comparison, but we need to get things moving.
 

DAW

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To be fair to the French, the reciprocal quarantine arrangements are not targeted specifically at the British. France announced that it will impose reciprocal measures on citizens of any nation that imposes quarantine requirements on French nationals. As an example, from Monday visitors arriving in France from Spain will be expected to self-quarantine.

A few weeks ago, under intense pressure from the tourism and travel industries, Macron attempted to show some leadership by suggesting that travel within the Shengen zone (extended to include the UK) should be quarantine free provided countries have broadly similar rates of transmission of the virus, etc. However, this was not accepted by amongst others Germany, Spain and now the UK.

It‘s a very disappointing development, but not entirely surprising given how national self interest has come to the fore in the last few months.
 

longjohnsilver

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To be fair to the French, the reciprocal quarantine arrangements are not targeted specifically at the British. France announced that it will impose reciprocal measures on citizens of any nation that imposes quarantine requirements on French nationals. As an example, from Monday visitors arriving in France from Spain will be expected to self-quarantine.

A few weeks ago, under intense pressure from the tourism and travel industries, Macron attempted to show some leadership by suggesting that travel within the Shengen zone (extended to include the UK) should be quarantine free provided countries have broadly similar rates of transmission of the virus, etc. However, this was not accepted by amongst others Germany, Spain and now the UK.

It‘s a very disappointing development, but not entirely surprising given how national self interest has come to the fore in the last few months.
In this fast changing political climate I expect everything will look quite different by the middle of July, the start of the traditional holiday season in most European countries.
Any more crystal ball gazing or palm readings will need to be paid for;)
 

Bouba

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Politics and public health are mixed together, so we have a fast changing science and huge political pressures, and in that respect all countries are different. So, too many permutations to predict the future
 

mcanderson

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Germany opened its borders mid this week, so hopefully it’s bordering nations will reciprocate. France I’m look at you! As we are currently in Germany we have two routes open to drive down, 40 mins to French border and then all France or 3 hours south through Germany, then Switzerland, Italy And cross into France near Ventigmillia. Its the British plates that concern me.
 

Portofino

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We want to only pass through .Details from both sides have not emerged on the procedure if you plan to less than 14 days in Q .
Presume it’s “up to “ 14 days ....which makes sense .
So we have a Fr address in Antibes which we could spend a night , “ it’s a one day trip officer “ ....and bugger off into friendly Italy where our boat is - 2 hr drive .
When we have OD ,d on boating head into Switzerland.Grass needs cutting by then :)
Or do we give our Swiss address and within 6 hrs from Calais it ” au revoir “ and good riddens if I am being truthful ! .......assuming we can pass through ?

Fr can’t reciprocate a pass through GB ....or maybe they can if headed for the Republic ?

A pass through means from a beaurcpatic pov , they need to issue you with some form of chit on arrival which you hand in on exit ....or something? Could well be put on a data base , so they can see you have taken the perceived risk out of there county?
Log you in and out kinda thing ??

Once away from plague ridden Brexit island ..... theres no immediate , medium term or for that matter any reason to rtn .

Already bought next seasons annual ski pass .
But hopefully by the Autum the Biology of the virus would have run its course ? Fairly normal travel resumes ?

Can,t help thinking there’s higher ( read Brexit ) shananingans going on off camera , was rather hoping the C19 strategy and Brexit strategy would stay separate.......but alas !
 
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