Originally Posted by
ShotOne
Unfortunately, everyone in this crisis is behaving exactly true to form. Authoritarian governments tighten the screw even harder. And expect to be praised for doing so. Greens want to shut down all post-industrial revolution activity. And little bad-tempered red-faced men who dislike people using public footpaths near them now pretend to be supporting the NHS!
And some of the posts in this forum are also in their own way 'true to form'.
I can figure why the UK government didn't do the right thing and restrict aviation travel sooner. But that was a big decision and and hindsight makes it simpler to judge that now. The public take the blame too - they would have been an outcry from those wanting travel in January and February. The media would have had a field day.
What I can't figure is why borders were not seen as a control point when the public lockdown commenced. It seems illogical not to have introduced stronger authorative controls at that time.
Having persuaded the UK public to generally comply with the lockdown, to shatter the economy, and sink many futures then it wouild be irresponsible *NOT* to put in some fairly heavy border enforcement as part of the overall controls that will be needed to catch and stop a second wave.
The aviation industry is in tatters. The public may not want to fly. It's not clear that they wlll be willing to fly domestically or use long distance public transport to the extent they were used to before the lockdown. If that's the case then the demand for international travle will surely be no better. Given the shift in economics both at the supply end and consumer end the public may not be able to afford to fly.
But worse it has to be mindful that history may become quite brutal - aviation as a sector may get the blame. Any airline CEO complaining about government international travel restrictions has to bear in mind that the governments they are lobbying are carrying the can for 10's of thousands (and counting) of excess deaths. The silent majority of the public may direct their wrath at more than just their governments. The story may get turned into an accusation that the aviation sector was selfishly responsible for spreading the disease that killed peoples jobs and futures along with huge numbers of actual mortalities. So railing against these quarantine restructions may well provoke a damaging response.