Travel ban is good news but it is too late

JUDY ON NEW RULES FOR THOSE ARRIVING IN UK

From tomorrow, everyone arriving in Scotland on an international flight will have to quarantine in a hotel for 10 days and foot the £1,750 bill.

Elsewhere in the UK, a similar scheme will operate but, unlike north of the border, it will apply only to those countries on the Covid-19 Red List. Anyone lying about having been in these countries under new rules could now face 10 years behind bars. I am all for the tough penalties and the shock factor that might make people who believe they are beyond the rules think again. But I can’t help but feel we are shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. We should have done this in the beginning. And, while I am glad that it is finally happening now, it won’t be foolproof unless the rest of the UK follows suit.

Whenever a new restriction is set, there will be people who will try to find a way around it and cheat the system. Won’t they just fly into airports in London, Birmingham or Manchester and take a bus or train or drive up the road to Scotland?

But while we are late to the party with this, it will hopefully serve some purpose. Having to spend 10 days cooped up in a hotel and parting with nearly £2,000 is going to make people think twice about whether they need to take a flight. Transport Secretary Michael Matheson has said there were about 1,600 Scottish arrivals in the last week of January and that by the first week of this month numbers had fallen to 730. So it appears to be having some impact.

I wonder, though, how much of this decision was provoked by the publicity around Celtic FC going to Dubai in December. Additional flights were put on to the destination because people saw it as somewhere they could enjoy a bit of fun in the sun.

While the bulk of the country is sticking to the rules – going nowhere and seeing no one – the new laws should be an effective way to stop those who think they can nip overseas under the guise of work for a change of scene and a few rays.

Had we have had these tough penalties in Britain at the start of this pandemic, really emphasising the danger that breaking the rules pose, we wouldn’t be where we are now.

We all have a part to play in getting rid of this virus but I have always believed that unless the deterrent is severe enough and the message has a major shock factor you will have limited impact.