Why people are ignoring ministers and heading for the sun | thearticle

When he was US Secretary State of State after 1945, General George Marshall hired George Kennan, the legendary Kremlinologist, as his Head of Policy Planning. Kennan produced endless option

papers on what the US should or shouldn’t do. After a few months Marshall called Kennan in and said: “Mr Kennan, may an old soldier give you some advice? Don’t fight decisions – take them.”

Alas, there is no George Marshall currently sitting around the Downing Street Cabinet table but the problem of decision-making in government is acute. Tomorrow, Dominic Cummings will try and

make hay over the Prime Minister’s decision-making – or lack of it – over Covid lockdowns last year. Much as many would like Cummings to destroy his erstwhile boss, it will be hard to take

seriously anything said by such a proven manipulator, whose handling of the Brexit campaign may have won the referendum — even if the “victory” feels a bit pyrrhic right now.  But it was a

victory based on such a procession of untruths as never before seen in British political history. So whatever Cummings tells MPs, his obsessive hate campaign against Boris Johnson has to be

taken with a large helping of Liar’s Balsam.  Far worse, from the point of view of the Government’s handling of Covid, are the 100,000 British citizens who will take one of the 80 daily

flights to Spain this week. In a very British fashion they are giving a two-fingered salute to the bizarre procession of ministers who have been issuing contradictory orders on whether or

not it is safe to travel. All Greek islands, for example, are Covid-free, as the Greeks took much tougher decisions to break contact early on. This is very different from Bolton, or London

boroughs like Ealing and Lambeth, where the Government has ordered surge testing over fears of thousands of British Asians returning from a spring visit to families in Modi’s Covid-wracked

India and spreading the Indian variant. Directives from ministers that are treated with such indifference, bordering on contempt, by thousands of citizens destroy the authority of

government. Labour has sought to out-tough Johnson, with demands that flights from almost anywhere be suspended and everyone forced to isolate in quarantine hotels, which seem more like open

prisons. When the Labour Shadow Home Secretary, Nick Thomas-Symonds, was asked by Andrew Marr how an ordinary family might pay the extortionate charges to stay in a quarantine hotel, he

suggested they could take out hardship loans. This Marie Antoinettish “Let Them Borrow to Go on Holiday” approach may not find favour with the Red Wall voters who fly from one of 23 UK

airports Ryanair uses to take Brits to warm spots. Far worse, is that each time Matt Hancock, Grant Shapps, Priti Patel or Lord Bethell says something, it is different from the last

ministerial injunction. The idea of the Faroe Islands as a good place for a summer holiday is surreal. Israel has a good vaccination record, but is not exactly enticing, given the latest war

and communal violence — unless you want a Blitz experience of sheltering from Iranian rockets fired by Hamas to kill Jewish civilians. Gibraltar is a delightful place, but anyone landing

there just crosses into Spain for a full summer beach holiday on Andalusia’s Atlantic coast. Ten thousand people travel from Spain to work in Gibraltar every day, so if you are on the Rock

you might as well be in Spain. The British people will make up their own minds about going to Europe, many parts of which are currently less dangerous than places in Britain. If the

Government wanted to help, it should speed up a simple NHS VaxApp to show the double vaccination half the adult population now has. The full NHS App is clunky and hard to use. A simple

VaxApp – if possible done in conjunction with the EU Vaccine passport  – would be welcomed. It wouldn’t mean the end of Brexit.  The Transport Secretary Grant Shapps promised recently that

he would bear down on the rip-off prices charged for PCR tests. As with other rank profiteering associated with the UK’s handling of the pandemic, it is a mystery why charges for a PCR test

in the UK are so high. It is free in France. Maybe just on this tiny, but important, issue we might learn from, or even copy our nearest neighbour? Over to Mr Shapps. The military maxim of

“Order. Counter-Order. Disorder” applies to the current ministerial handling of holiday travel. The news the nation wants to hear is not Dominic Cummings’ hate-fest against Boris Johnson,

but just some calm, sensible help to allow people to fly on holiday this summer. A MESSAGE FROM THEARTICLE _We are the only publication that’s committed to covering every angle. We have an

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