Open up the skies again – and see the hopes of a nation soar

FOR the sake of the British people who have patiently endured unheard of restrictions on all the joys of life for almost a year, for the sake of the airline and travel industries which employ so many and contribute so much to our national wealth, it is vital that the Government draws up a plan for the reopening of foreign travel. Families and business alike need the stimulus of real hope. Our economy and society need the regeneration that open airports will bring.

Many countries, such as Turkey, Greece, Spain and Portugal, long to welcome British holidaymakers again, as much as those holidaymakers long to revisit them. They are as keen as we are to find workable ways to open up.

The miraculous success of the world-beating UK Covid vaccination programme means that by the time summer arrives, millions of Britons will be protected against the virus and protected against spreading it. Those in most danger from it will also be immeasurably safer.

If new variants arise, or other countries fall back into difficulties, it will not be hard to implement measures to contain this. Total safety is impossible – but by any measure, the danger once presented by Covid-19 is hugely diminished and regulations which were once easily defended are becoming irksome and hard to justify. This will accelerate as the weather warms and more weeks of lockdown drag by.

We need clarity and decision to allow everyone to plan their liberations, a firm position so well-designed that there is no danger of it being rescinded later. There should be no more muddled thinking and no more internal battles, but a Government united in a wise and well-crafted policy. What we need above all is for Ministers to decide, and stick to what they have decided.