The answer was simple, just follow what New Zealand and Australia did and are still doing right from the start. Next to no foreign travel. Any countryman that does manage to get back into the country are forced into isolation hotels at their expense for 14 days. I am sure that would go down well on this thread where many still demand a foreign holiday and see it as their right.

At the time of lock down 28000 people a day were flying into the UK from Spain alone.
And genetic analysis shows that our epidemic was seeded over 1300 times. There was no chance to institute quarantine.

And just how long is this approach sustainable? Their populations will have next to no immunity and will have big numbers whenever they do open their borders. The only way this works is to hold out for a vaccine which sadly there's absolutely no guarantee of.

Yet the government of New Zealand gets re-elected with a record vote over their tough stance. This all started through mass international travel yet NZ saw it coming and acted quickly. We on the other hand took a different route.

You've dodged the question. What happens when they reopen their borders?

They will all be vaccinated by then.

And what if no vaccine?

The fact you consider me a “hard-left activist” when I generally voted for the current party of Government until 2015 and the hardest left I’d voted until that time was Lib Dems in a local election is a perfect articulation of what has gone wrong with this country.

Perhaps you should review your posting archive?

Can we try to move back onto the topic please ? Some things are best left for JetBlast or private message

Agree with DJ6. This is a global forum & thread yet we are side tracked into UK politics.

In addition to Australia & New Zealand, it is almost impossible to get into most East / SE Asian countries unless you have residential status there. Even then, you are looking at mandatory testing and quarantine of all passengers(positive or negative). Current time from arrival to being allowed to quarantine hotel/home in Hong Kong for instance is around 10 hours. This has been the case for many months.
These Asian countries have relatively low infection rates, low hospitalisations & low deaths. Within the communities, many places are leading almost "normal" lives. Border control has been effective and one of the major keys something European countries never got to grips with.
How long that is sustainable is anyone's guess. As for the point of population immunity- the jury is still out on that one too as to how effective that is.
I can't see any alternatives other than a combo of testing, quarantine & vaccine for the foreseeable future.

They made Jeremy Corbyn seem electable which even he struggles to understand.

New Zealand's only neighbour is Australia and after that it is a bloody long way to anywhere.Easy to isolate when it takes hours and hours to get there rather than 20 minutes in a RIB across the channel.

Some see a vaccine as a panacea for everything, quite happy for these people to be first in line as "testers". I will wait a couple of years.

Indeed. I would rather take my chances with the virus than an early release vaccine.

Best of luck with that.

You will have little choice. First in line for the jab will be front line staff working within the health sector, then I suspect other emergency service employees, then people working in the public service, then the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions and eventually, at some stage, long after any side effects have been assessed on the high priority groups, us ordinary plebs (that is the ones who actually contribute to the economy of the country) may get a look in, supposing that is, there is any left.

JCVI produced a list of who would qualify for the vaccination. This is the provisional order.
1. Over 80 plus health & care home workers and high risk over 65
2. Over 75
3. Over 70
4. Over 65
5. High & moderate risk under 65
6. Over 60
7. Over 55
8. Over 50
9. Rest of population
The UK has ordered 100 million doses from AstraZeneca/jJenner Institute Oxford Uni so there should be enough to go around (UK population 68 million). They have also ordered 30 million form Pfizer, 60 million from Sanofi/GSK and 60 million from Novavax. Per head of population the UK has ordered more than any other country - hedging their bets that at least one vaccine will come through.

As I am not in the first 3 groups I would take the vaccine when offered as some countries may bar entry to non vaccinated visitors or you have to go into quarantine.

As you have said, the UK has made multiple orders with different developers as it's very possible not all of them will turn out to be successful, but moreover, presently we don't know whether, rather like with the childhood vaccines, we'll need an initial jab, followed by a booster, 3 or 6 months, or even later. I will take the when it's available - I fall into group 6 at the moment, so I see know real prospect of getting it before Q3 2021, but by then I see the risks as negligible and worth taking, since it won't just protect me, but those around me.

Cornwall Council`s Head of Finance has said Newquay Airport is not currently viable.

More than 100 jobs to go at Leeds/LBA due to Covid.