Dear Reader

WE MUST all hope (well, not the Welsh and Scots, obviously) that England splits the German defence on Tuesday in similar fashion to the way Spain’s foreign minister is cutting a swathe through the EU’s resolve to make British tourists quarantine when visiting the continent.

Hold your nerve, Senora Arancha Gonzalez Laya. Or as Gary and Alan in the studio would put it: ‘Keep it tight or you’ll be punished in the final third.’

Let’s hope we are in the final third, and that we can start booking holidays with confidence. One can only imagine the tension in Cabinet over complications to the traffic light system.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock may have cast caution to the wind in his love life but he and Priti Patel are reportedly more cautious about lifting overseas travel restrictions than is Transport Secretary Grant Shapps.

The Prime Minister doesn’t seem like the cautious type but his stay in intensive care seems to have dented his bravado.

An unsavoury German/French alliance has formed and already Portugal says it will fall into line with a general EU directive about making us as unwelcome as possible. Madrid is holding out, saying it will set its own border policy, which seems prudent given that in any 12 months some 18 million Britons normally take a holiday in Spain.

A big opportunity was missed on Thursday. We could have opened up travel to the U.S. and to many of the popular Greek islands, such as Crete, pictured. Greece may be paying the price for not having a sophisticated system of genome sequencing — but Britain has become an expert in this and where there’s a will there’s a way.

No wonder the demeanour of airlines and travel companies is only marginally better today than it was two days ago. We now have to wait until July 15 for the next travel review. Let’s hope it’s an improvement on this week’s feeble effort.