I despair.
Apparently the polls show a large majority approve of ten-year prison sentences for anyone caught trying to evade quarantine after a visit to Portugal etc.
This new offence and sentence will come into effect without either a debate or vote in Parliament.
What have we come to?
Imagine ending a trip confined to your hotel room for ten days, and having to pay a whopping bill, in addition.
The UK is not some backwater that can cut itself off from the world, on the contrary, we are one of the world’s greatest trading and travelling nations. Restrictive measures may have devastating consequences for our national income and livelihoods.
The danger is that it is always easier to impose a quarantine policy than to lift it.
The policy is a direct precautionary response to new strains of Covid-19 that have emerged in specified countries.
Will the Government feel able to lift the quarantine once our vaccination programme is sufficiently advanced?
Or will there be a temptation for further precaution against the possible emergence of new mutations of the virus?
After all, mutate is what viruses do. What’s more they do it anywhere, not just in the designated destinations. Indeed, currently the world’s most successful mutant variant originated in Kent.
The fear of a new mutant variant need not be confined to Covid-19, any virus could be mutating anywhere.
If we are ever to return to normality and prosperity we have to encounter risks with a proper sense of proportion.