Chinese visitors

The government was said to be against imposing any tests or controls on Chinese visitors planning to fly to the UK.

Yesterday evening a journalist released a story that the government is changing its mind and does think Chinese travellers should show a recent test result proving they did not have covid.

I do not wish to see the UK introduce tests or other features of lockdowns again here in the UK. I do think with China there is a case to say travellers wishing to come to the UK should show a recent negative test result from a recent test to a standard the UK approves before boarding the plane in China. With millions of Chinese now said to have the virus when the NHS is not wanting Ā more patients there would be a symmetry in such a demand after the long period of restrictions against travellers to China.

What do you think the UK should do?

217 Comments

  1. Mickey Taking
    December 31, 2022

    It is reported that some A&E departments are being overwhelmed, various virus problems, flu etc.
    Given the parlous state of our health services in general it would seem precautionary to insist on Covid checks before boarding aircraft in China, or stops en route. China has moved from vigorous shutdown to throwing caution to the wind. We must not allow another flood of cases which may even be a new strain.
    Dec 31, 5.20 am.

    1. Ian Wragg
      December 31, 2022

      So my comment gets binned because I point out that the two at the top of government might not have the interests of Britain as a number one priority.
      Anyway, Happy New Year to all.

      1. Cuibono
        December 31, 2022

        +++
        Not being rude šŸ¤§
        But this seems to me like a bit of a ā€œfishing tripā€ to gauge public reaction to more restrictions?
        Maybe?
        I do hope not!
        ( can I see shilling for another wave of imprisonments?)
        Whatever you said ā€¦I agree that no one remotely cares about us.
        The bin awaits!

        1. Hope
          December 31, 2022

          If the govt cannot stop boat people or the diseases they have been carrying into the country- recently reported- what confidence should we have with its open door migration policy?

          Why is the govt not stopping all Chinese people coming here until it is known what disease they have or what strain of covid?

          China has appalling human rights abuse record why is the govt still not doing anything in response to Hong Kong, covid etc. and sanction or reduce amount of goods from China?

      2. Lifelogic
        December 31, 2022

        This is surely rather clear cut. Other than in taxing them to death, giving them net harm vaccines and rigging their energy markets!

        1. Hope
          December 31, 2022

          As I recall at the outset of covid China stopped all internal flights while the WHO demanded the world carry on trading and travelling to China, it made no sense at all.

          Yet the dullard government allowed 18,000,000 to travel from covid hot spots to UK without any restrictions!! It then imposed an authoritarian lockdown for about 2 years! The govt could not have acted in the worse possible way. The govt. failed to enact its own pandemic policy preferring the big pharma/Chinese led WHO plan.

          Who was in charge of planning, preparing and testing the NHS pandemic plan for six years, one Jeremy Hunt! Who advocated Chinese lockdown, one Jeremy Hunt. Who was rejected by his party and membership and is not fit to be chancellor?

          1. Lifelogic
            December 31, 2022

            Well perhaps it does if you realise who choses the head of the WHO who also tried to bury the lab leak theory which was/is almost certainly correct as is now fairly clear.

          2. Zorro
            December 31, 2022

            One Jeremy Hunt šŸ™‚

            Zorro

      3. Donna
        December 31, 2022

        Might not?

        I think it’s a dead cert. Ignore what they say and watch what they do …..

      4. MFD
        December 31, 2022

        Agreed Ian, we need laws that stop migrants being Members of Our parliament, just like the rest of the world.
        As for the flu ! It comes and goes every year and should not be a subject for an interfering government

      5. Hope
        December 31, 2022

        The lack of honesty and transparency following first covid should mean the govt and world not to trust China full stop. Another example Hong Kong, another example itā€™s total disregard for human rights. Most all not trust WHO let alone stupidly give our taxes to it.

    2. Cuibono
      December 31, 2022

      Ho hum.
      As I predicted a week or so ago.
      Opening the floodgates for another panic and more lockdowns.
      Does no one remember the last few years?
      Love thy masks and stay at home!
      15 minute cities and NO CARS!
      We all want that do we?
      Remember what the inventor of the PCR said.
      It can prove WHATEVER you want it to!

      1. glen cullen
        December 31, 2022

        Yes – forget the chinese, I’m more worried about our own government …I’ll never wear a mask again

      2. Hope
        December 31, 2022

        Could JR tell us how many bed spaces during covid were occupied by foreigners, or from the 18,000,000 who travelled here, who paid nothing into the pot?

        What happened to the scare narrative no one safe until all vaccinated, UK spent billions on other countries. How many in those supported countries did not get vaccinated? How much was wasted?

        Could JR tell us if an investigation has taken place into those advising govt who have links to big pharma?

        How much was spent on advertising and scaring people to govt compliance?

        What part did govt take in closing down, smearing other scientists with alternative plans and drugs such as ivermectin? We read Handcock wanted to stop any other point of view.

        Why is the govt still pursuing vaccines on approved on an emergency basis? Why is the govt still not using other drugs like ivermectin?

        Why did the govt not staff Nightingale hospitals with the hundreds of thousands of volunteers it called for? Why were old people in hospital not transferred to these hospitals instead of care homes?

        I ask because I have No faith in your govt to act in our national interest- in all aspects of our lives. I also have no confidence they are not acting in their own interests from any lobbying group they might be paying them.

      3. Jim Whitehead
        December 31, 2022

        Cuibono, +++++++++++. Weā€™re in trouble until thereā€™s a cure for hysteria, and it often masquerades as good reason.

        1. glen cullen
          December 31, 2022

          Spot On Jim

    3. Cuibono
      December 31, 2022

      They have been ā€œoverwhelmedā€ every winter since the year dot.
      Years and years of ā€œGuardianā€ headlines.
      It is because countless hospitals have been closed and millions of newcomers have been welcomed.
      And CLOSING DOWN for a few years plus strikes didnā€™t really help!

    4. Lifelogic
      December 31, 2022

      Well waiting time around 9 hours they are all either overwhelmed or grossly incompetent. Last time I went to A&E I was fortunately overseas the wait to see the doctor was 5 min. Chest x ray, given antibiotics left in 25 mins. All very efficient had to pay about Ā£130.

      There is no reason why a nine hour wait saves any money you still have to see the patient after the delay and they are in a less good mood!

      The wait is to deter people from bothering to come or push them elsewhere but if ill enough they will still come.

      1. Mickey Taking
        December 31, 2022

        A&E are annoyed at doing the work GPs are paid for, but rarely do anymore.
        It is an internal battle for who does what!
        Patient? – oh those….so what.

        1. glen cullen
          December 31, 2022

          Ambulance staff want to be nurses, nurses want to be junior doctors, junior doctors want to be consultant doctors and consultant doctors want more private patients and more time to play golf ā€¦its all envy and greed

        2. Lifelogic
          December 31, 2022

          Indeed each competing with waiting lists and inconvenience so you take the other route. The wonderful NHS system and ā€œfreeā€ at the point of use. So all you can do to deter use is inconvenience by delays.

        3. Ian B
          December 31, 2022

          @Mickey Taking +1 About 6 months ago I experienced a serious but I thought not life threatening situation. Long story short, the specialist(back door private) I did eventually see said I should have gone straight to A&E, when I would have been comfortable with even a phone conversation with a GP – still waiting for that.

    5. Bill B.
      December 31, 2022

      Prof Sir Andrew Pollard, Britainā€™s vaccine chief called border tests ā€œpointlessā€ because ‘they did not stop the spread of the virus and there was no current evidence of a new variant in China’. Daily Telegraph 30-12-22.

      But you know better, MT?

      1. Lifelogic
        December 31, 2022

        Well if say 25 people cannot get on the long packed flight until they recover it seem fairly likely that some other the other passengers are rather less likely to catch it? But I am just a Math, Physics engineering person. Not Chair of the JCVI and a prof. who regulate the current net harm vaccine programme even for the young and children that should be suspended forthwith.

        1. Clough
          December 31, 2022

          LL, what do you mean by ‘recover’? These tests don’t diagnose illness. They pick up the DNA strands of SARS-Cov 1, which was supposed to be similar to SARS Cov2, or they pick up something similar.

          If passengers have symptoms of illness, I don’t suppose the Chinese airport staff would allow them on the flight, given how twitchy they still are about Covid.

          Or have you hung on to the asymptomatic carriers story that worried everybody in 2020?

          1. Jim Whitehead
            December 31, 2022

            Clough, ++++++++

          2. a-tracy
            December 31, 2022

            50% of Chinese travellers on a flight to Milan had covid. Do you think China were locking down their Cities, closing their economy and imprisoning people for fun in December? The Chinese rebelled against lockdown and its now being left to run freeā€¦FT 2 days ago ā€” China is in the grip of an unprecedented Covid wave, with tens of millions of people being infected daily.

            Do we want it just to run amok here for the sake of a test and a delay to flying here if they have this version of the virus?

          3. Lifelogic
            December 31, 2022

            Well many will have symptoms so recover or just later test negative.

      2. Mickey Taking
        December 31, 2022

        I suggest merely to point out the risk assessment. The ‘border tests’ were done after the horse had bolted. Too late by then it was ‘in the wild’.

      3. Jim Whitehead
        December 31, 2022

        Bill B, ++++++++. Common sense, courage, and judgement are still in short supply.
        The fatuous gestures and mandates will achieve nothing in health terms, and even a very good friend, a retired GP, tells me that heā€™s had his fifth jab . . . . . Do I slap my forehead, or should I slap the back of his head?

      4. formula57
        December 31, 2022

        @ Bill B – you lost me at “Prof Sir …”.

      5. Ian B
        December 31, 2022

        @Bill B. While it cant be stopped, it can be slowed so as not to overwelm

    6. Nottingham Lad Himself
      December 31, 2022

      I’ve lost count of the number of respiratory bugs that I’ve had of late. There may have been covid – I don’t bother testing.

      It’s hardly surprising, every public place is full of people coughing and sneezing endlessly without so much as putting a hand to their faces, nor encouraging their children to do that.

      It appears that many have learnt absolutely nothing during the pandemic.

      So testing a relatively few travellers from China will have zero material impact on the soaring cases. Indeed, these people culturally, like the Japanese etc., are probably far less likely to spread any infection that they might have than the locals are.

  2. Mark B
    December 31, 2022

    Good morning.

    I am of the opinion that we should test Chinese as this is where all this nonsense started. But I guess those University fees are just too tempting.

    1. Berkshire Alan
      December 31, 2022

      Mark B

      Agree absolutely.
      Looks like at last the Government has seen some common sense at last, only I would make them take a Lateral flow test here as well as soon as they arrive, positive tests isolate at their expense in a secure establishment until clear.
      Face facts, we imported this virus from China in the first place when they denied there was a problem at all. so we need to be very careful.
      Shame it took other European Countries to see sense before we eventually did !

      1. John Hatfield
        December 31, 2022

        Government – common sense? Surely that’s an oxymoron.
        The government will do what SAGE tells it.

    2. Zorro
      December 31, 2022

      This is an exit wave because of their numpty zero covid policy supported by Jeremy Hunt and I am sick to death of the constant whining of PROTECT THE NHS like some dystopian cliche. We have massive amounts of natural immunity in the UK. Let people live their lives. There is no new variant. All bedwetters please put on your masks, keep your distance, take your 43rd jibby jab, hide behind your sofa and preface every communication you make with the moronic ā€˜Are you keeping well and staying safeā€™.

      Zorro

      1. Mark B
        January 1, 2023

        +1

        Zorro

        You forgot the pots’n’pans šŸ˜‰

  3. Lifelogic
    December 31, 2022

    I seems, given the very high levels of infection, then a test before getting on the plane is justified if only to protect other passengers and staff on the flight.

    Another excellent video by Dr John Campbell calling for the Covid vaccine programme to be withdrawn. It certainly should be now. It always looked like criminal negligence to me given the statistics but the case now is overwhelming Chris Whitty.

    So Ann Diamond receives an OBE. I have nothing against her but also in the GBNews stable we have Mark Stein (get well soon please), Dan Wooton, Neil Oliver, Patrick Christys, Portilo, Farage, Andrew Doyle… still I suppose they hit their 50/50 gender split and she is does not rock the establishment boat!

    1. Lifelogic
      December 31, 2022

      Those testing positive can just come a week or two later after all.

    2. Lifelogic
      December 31, 2022

      A long crowded flight is rather a good incubation unit, even if only a few on board are infectious.

    3. BOF
      December 31, 2022

      +1 LL. ‘Gender split’ gave me a chuckle.

    4. Lifelogic
      December 31, 2022

      An interview with the retiring Vice Chancellor of Oxford university Dame Louise Richardson in the Telegraph. She does sound rather a silly billy as Denis (98% income tax) Healey used to say.

      She could not be more thrilled that her successor is a woman. ā€œOne of my personal goals has always been to be succeeded by women. I think thatā€™s because if a man has a success or a failure in the role, his gender is immaterial. If a woman is not successful in a role, there is no chance whatsoever that they will be succeeded by a woman.ā€

      Well A. this is clearly rather blatant discrimination and prejudice, surely illegal & clear misandry especially if you want a scientist in the roll as good female Stem people are rather thin on the ground and B. Liz Truss replaced the dire Theresa May rather disproving her conjecture.

      She was not asked about how much influence big Pharma has over distorting their medical ā€œscienceā€ agenda.

      1. Mickey Taking
        December 31, 2022

        If thats her personal goal what were any others?

      2. formula57
        December 31, 2022

        @ LifeLogoc “…and B. Liz Truss replaced the dire Theresa May rather disproving her conjecture” – proof beyond doubt that Boris is cancelled?

      3. Ian B
        December 31, 2022

        @Lifelogic – Happy New Year

        Another in the Pay of the Tax Payer that isnā€™t striving for ā€˜the-best-of-the-bestā€™ just publicising discrimination of the highest order. For levelling-up read levelling-down.

        There can be know equality while this sort of thinking seeks to override those that have attained positions through ability and hard work. This type of discrimination undermines those that have gone before that got there regardless of these new discriminant titles.

    5. Paul
      December 31, 2022

      I think you will find Ann Dimond got her OBE for her charity work on cot deathā€¦but why let a fact get in the way of a whinge about gender equality.

      1. Lifelogic
        December 31, 2022

        Nothing against Ann Diamond at all nest of luck to her. But they do tend to consider the whole and not just the charity work.

        Artist Grayson Perry and that countdown person were rather dire choices. Still at least one physicist got one, Brian May, helps if you play Guitar a bit it seems.

    6. Peter
      December 31, 2022

      LL,
      Chris Bryant gets a knighthood for no obvious reason.

      The whole honours system has long been a farce and should be scrapped.

      1. Lifelogic
        December 31, 2022

        Always rather a depressing read of state sector do not rock the boat types and vacuous celebs and sports people (Not the Mat Le Tissier sound ones either). Perhaps 1% on the list do deserve them at best.

      2. Ian B
        December 31, 2022

        @LifeLogic & @Peter

        The Honours System is now a House of disrepute, now longer about selfless devotion and sacrifice. All about ā€˜look at meā€™ I have friends of friends that can pat me on the back. Yes agreed it needs disbanding along with the House of Lords.

        The UK Citizen and the Society we inhabit are far far better than this cronyism.

  4. AncientPopeye
    December 31, 2022

    A total ban on any visitors from China for at least 6 months, then the strictest controls on entry.

    1. Mickey Taking
      December 31, 2022

      add to that Russians and ahem, French!

      1. Lynn Atkinson
        December 31, 2022

        Has Russia got the cooph?

  5. Peter
    December 31, 2022

    I agree. No more tests for U.K. citizens where things seem to be under control.

    However, news from China suggests we now need measures to ensure travellers from there donā€™t affect the health of the population here in the U.K.

  6. Michael Malone
    December 31, 2022

    Sir John, I am by no means a lockdown advocate. However, it makes sense to me that any visitor to the UK, from a high risk country, should provide a negative RAT result (within 24 hours) prior to boarding an aircraft to the UK.

    1. rose
      December 31, 2022

      Yet TB, diptheria, AIDS, etc. and, of course, any strange strain of the Wuhan virus are welcome in unlimited, uninvited, unidentified men via Calais, just as they were during the two and a half years of shutdown.

  7. Eddie Sheppard
    December 31, 2022

    I think Chinese visitors should show proof of a Negative test.

    1. glen cullen
      December 31, 2022

      Donā€™t forget Chinese students and their families that have continued to come and go throughout 2022

      1. MFD
        December 31, 2022

        A lot of guff over a bit of flu, I would be more concerned about Chinese spying on our industry and science !

        1. glen cullen
          January 1, 2023

          Agree

  8. SM
    December 31, 2022

    Whether the Government introduces a test requirement or not, it will of course be blamed should there be any negative consequences – making a decision is the burden carried by anyone in charge of any organisation, state or indeed, family!

  9. turboterrier
    December 31, 2022

    It is not just China. It should be any country with high infection rates of Covid All travellers should produce proof of negative testing prior to boarding the aircraft. It may be a consideration to carry out random tests of 2% on arrival.

    1. Mickey Taking
      December 31, 2022

      at present we can’t even count them, let alone pull out one in 50.

      1. turboterrier
        December 31, 2022

        M T
        Love it still smiling

  10. Abigail
    December 31, 2022

    Many oeople say that the covid virus has never been isolated. Can we not deal with it by using vitamin D3, vitamin C, zinc and NAC? When H1N1 came in there was no hype, no fuss and life went on as normal. It was actually much worse than covid. I think the government has overreacted big time and should concentrate on putting right the damage they did by shutting down the economy.

    1. SM
      December 31, 2022

      I am in my late 70s and have never had a flu jab, nor had the flu. Ditto for Covid, and I did not self-isolate. I very rarely get a ‘normal’ cold.

      However, I have taken a zinc supplement for about 30 years, and I doubled the dose during the severe Covid infection period.

      1. Fedupsoutherner
        December 31, 2022

        SM. Good for you but many including very healthy people haven’t been so lucky.

        1. Mickey Taking
          December 31, 2022

          and crematoria got overwhelmed, along with GPs, hospitals, paramedics…

        2. Lynn Atkinson
          December 31, 2022

          Did they take Zinc? Or better still that Nobel Prizewinning medication, Ivermectin?

          1. anon
            January 2, 2023

            Re: Air travel:
            Depends on the data you have. But these days can you actually trust the providers or gatekeepers of the data.

            Do a Trump and close them out for 3 weeks or so if your blind.
            That will satisfy save the NHS for the all the others allowed in by dinghy.
            Then review as needed. Ask the Italians for any data and resume flights if the levels are low and no new dangerous strains are apparent with negative testing or none as the facts lead.

    2. MFD
      December 31, 2022

      Well said Abigail, I totally agree!

    3. Zorro
      December 31, 2022

      I have taken vitamin D3, K2, zinc, vitamin C, cod liver oil, and turmeric from the beginning. I have been fine, and I will not take the MRNA injections.

      Zorro

      1. Fedupsoutherner
        January 1, 2023

        Zorro. Oh please. I’ve had nothing and had no cold or flu for over 25 years. Had my vaccines and had Covid but would hardly know it. I’m not superwoman though. Many like my friend have had the vaccines and had covid twice with no adverse symptoms. This time however they have been very ill. This virus changes all the time. Some have had vaccines and others just vitamins and nothing else but have still caught covid. There is nothing that prevents you catching it. It’s luck of the draw. My husband eats what I do. He’s vulnerable and has had his vaccines like me. I’ve had Covid, he hasn’t. Nothing to do with vitamins.

  11. Cheshire Girl
    December 31, 2022

    Iā€™m going to be blunt here. It is probably impractical, but I don’t think we should allow anyone from China into the UK, until they have got this under control.

    1. R.Grange
      December 31, 2022

      But they had it ‘under control’, CG. They locked everybody down for months on end. You couldn’t get stricter controls on Covid than what Beijing imposed. And now this big panic about the Chinese bringing Covid: doesn’t it show how pointless lockdowns were?

      1. Mickey Taking
        December 31, 2022

        The vaccine they developed and used on a small percentage of the population proved fairly ineffective.

        1. Bill B.
          December 31, 2022

          Whereas ‘ours’ are very effective, MT??

          Even our authorities have admitted they don’t stop infection and don’t stop spread.

          1. Mickey Taking
            December 31, 2022

            They stop it if you don’t go out and hug and kiss your mates!

          2. Fedupsoutherner
            January 1, 2023

            Bill B. No, but how do you know that the vaccines might have stopped us being very ill? Notice how the numbers of dead or very ill went down after vaccination. I’m not saying they are perfect but I do think they play a part in reducing illness in many people.

        2. rose
          December 31, 2022

          I’ve had 3 vaccines (2 AZ) and 3 attacks of the coronavirus, the one weeks after the Pfizer being by far the worst, and the first one, before the vaccines, being the mildest.

          1. Lynn Atkinson
            December 31, 2022

            If you had a mild infection and recovered, why in the name of all thatā€™s good did you have a ā€˜vaccineā€™?

        3. Zorro
          December 31, 2022

          Thatā€™s propaganda

          Zorro

          1. Fedupsoutherner
            January 1, 2023

            Reply to Lynn. Because even though you’ve had Covid you can still get it again. My friend has had it 3 times. The first two times weren’t bad but this time has been bad. The problem seems to be that some get off lightly like me but others don’t. Then there’s long covid.

      2. Jim Whitehead
        December 31, 2022

        R. G., ++++++++. Iā€™m afraid that the balance of comments today suggests that absolutely nothing has been learned and the sheep are still in marshalled slow trek to enslavement and then . . . . . ???
        Tests, PCR, Test and Trace, lockdowns, officiousness, masks, . . . . . and nothing to show for it in the whole world, unless youā€™re in profit from peddling such measures.
        Diamond Princess ??

        1. Fedupsoutherner
          January 1, 2023

          No Jim. I just want those that have Covid to stay at home. If you have genuine flu then you are do bad you cannot go out. You don’t want to go out. If you have Covid then some people feel well with just a bit of a sore throat. They go out regardless of others and spread it. You don’t know if those others, even though they are fit are going to be really ill through you spreading it. Bit selfish I would say.

  12. Mary M.
    December 31, 2022

    Dr. David Livermore in an article in Toby Young’s ‘Daily Sceptic’ explains why ‘Testing Chinese visitors to the UK would be foolish’.

    If only our dear leaders would read what experts such as this professor have to say. (Dr. David Livermore is Professor of Medical Microbiology at the University of East Anglia.)

    The, until recently, locked-up Chinese are ‘infection-naĆÆve’ as the professor puts it, and this is why the highly transmissible omicron variant is ripping through their population. Omicron is a cold, which most of us have been exposed to whether ‘vaccinated’ or not, so we have little to worry about.

    Rather than proof of a recent negative test (how reliable are these tests?), what about proof of health insurance? Other than that, let’s welcome them. They could do with a holiday.

    1. BOF
      December 31, 2022

      Thank you Mary M. Glad to see you have not fallen for the “control the virus” nonsense.

      1. MFD
        December 31, 2022

        šŸ‘šŸ»šŸ¤™šŸ»šŸ¤“

    2. Lifelogic
      December 31, 2022

      Dr Livermore is a good man who was one of rather few talking sense even in the early stages of Covid. Though the UEA is surely a hot spot of climate alarmism propaganda its medical department is perhaps more sound?

      1. Mickey Taking
        December 31, 2022

        I doubt it. Omicron – a cold, seemed to be quite good at killing people.

        1. Richard II
          December 31, 2022

          No, Omicron was reckoned to be the mildest variant yet, MT. That’s why SAGE was unable to coerce the government into locking us down last Christmas, if you remember.

        2. Mark
          December 31, 2022

          It really wasn’t. Back in January 2021 when Omicron was dominant, cases peaked at around 170,000 a day in England, while deaths peaked at just 200 a day. A 0.11% case fatality ratio. Compare with similar statistics for H1N1 flu in 2009, and you find a 0.5% CFR. Of course, the overwhelming majority of deaths were in the elderly with co-morbidities.

    3. IanT
      December 31, 2022

      I think any visitor to this country should have health insurance and be asked to produce before boarding.

    4. Jim Whitehead
      December 31, 2022

      Mary M. +++++++++++

  13. Javelin
    December 31, 2022

    The restrictions are not going to be imposed until Jan 5th.

    This is to insure that tens of thousands of Chinese students can come to the UK to spread the virus to Conservative voters children.

    And you wonder why the current polls say this.

    LAB: 45% (-1)
    CON: 19% (-3)
    GRN: 9% (+3)
    LDEM: 8% (-)
    REF: 8% (-)

    1. Lifelogic
      December 31, 2022

      The only sensible party listed is reform, alas with FPTP they will not get a single MP.

      1. Hope
        December 31, 2022

        LL,
        Conservative voters only have one Conservative party to vote for. Therefore Reform is the only choice. If not any party that will destroy the current socialist Tory govt.

        You will recall irrespective of election system JRs party were fined for breaking election laws to prevent Farage getting elected. Not learning from life experience, or just plain arrogance, Under Johnson the party also fined again for breaking spending.

        1. rose
          December 31, 2022

          Why is Reform to be preferred to Heritage, Reclaim, UKIP, and SDP?

          1. Hope
            December 31, 2022

            R,
            Quite simply: Better led and managed. Tice and Farage have learned from experience. More candidates around the country.

        2. Lifelogic
          December 31, 2022

          Yes but loads of voters will only vote Tory, Labour, LibDim… as they have all their life. Many rather old and will never do otherwise. Without the Tory Brand no chance of a seat let alone a majority for reform!

          1. Hope
            January 1, 2023

            LL,
            There are lots of stupid people it is not a disease but a fact of life. Look at Westminster.

            What a waste of vote to vote for something that you know will not turn out to be what you voted for!! Einstein madness theory!

            LL, a daft comment from a person self declared maths, science etc. How many times have you blogged tax, spend and piss down the drain? Keep banging your head against a wall you might find it still hurts after the fourth or fifth time!

    2. a-tracy
      December 31, 2022

      Javelin, oh groan 5 Jan is shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. Pointless by then.

      Either this Chinese virus mark II is a serious killer that got out of control this November and December causing China to lockdown major cities and imprison people for good reason, orā€¦ what is China up to locking down and quarantining unnecessarily?

      1. Mark B
        January 1, 2023

        There is much civil unrest in China. Lockdowns are a good way of keeping the people off the streets.

    3. Philip P.
      December 31, 2022

      Javelin – The Chinese will only be allowed to leave China without having to quarantine on return as from 8th January. There will be no rush of Chinese visitors before the 8th.

      Also, I see nearly 120,000 UK student visas were granted to Chinese students in the 12 months ending Sept. 2022 (ICEF Monitor). Large numbers would have come at the same time, at the beginning of the academic year. If they’d brought a nasty virus with them, I think we would have heard about it by now.

  14. Clough
    December 31, 2022

    Even the Covid-obsessed fanatics at the German health ministry say for the time being there is no need to impose restrictions on Chinese visitors. They will not bring new variants, so the health risk is said to be minimal. Germany will, however, check at airports for new Covid variants. This seems a more sensible approach. Germany is one of the last countries in Europe to still require mask-wearing on public transport, so they can’t be called lax on Covid.

    1. Jim Whitehead
      December 31, 2022

      Clough, +++++++

  15. Lifelogic
    December 31, 2022

    A direct parallel with the Net Zero war on plant food insanity and the “renewables/unreliables” agenda. Vested interests, charities, academia, globalists and the UK and other governments at war with ordinary people interests. Sunak and Hunt clearly fully on side in this evil agenda vote for US and we will act against your interests or even kill you.

  16. Bill B.
    December 31, 2022

    What do I think we should do? Not listen to a media campaign. We saw what happened last time, in 2020. This journalist, like the rest of them, is seeking to boost sales and clicks by spreading fear.

    1. Jim Whitehead
      December 31, 2022

      Bill B. Well said, Bill. +++++

  17. Lifelogic
    December 31, 2022

    Just after the half way point Fox is obliged by “regulators” (OFCOM one assumes) to read the most absurd and surely totally dishonest statement from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.

  18. R.Grange
    December 31, 2022

    Why would there be any threat to a public mostly vaccinated against Covid? The government told us the vaccines were ‘safe and effective’, surely. So I’d say the government could put restrictions on Chinese visitors, but only if it admits first that it was wrong about the vaccines’ effectiveness. And at the same time it should stop telling parents to get their children jabbed, until we have longer term data on the risks.

    1. Hope
      December 31, 2022

      I would stop or heavily vet Chinese visitors for national security reasons alone after spy scandal at Westminster, setting up police stations in other countries, current human rights abuses being ignored by our govt and its determination to control the world by finance and goods exports.

  19. Cuibono
    December 31, 2022

    Testing/requiring a (ridiculous) test result from Chinese VISITORS would be highly discriminatory considering how the govt. welcomes boatloads of other people. Goes and fetches them even.
    But I doubt if there is much truth in any of this story anyway.
    What is govt. up to?
    Trying to manufacture new wave of fear?
    The Lords and CCC want to achieve Net Zero entirely through OUR changed behaviourā€¦NOT they-know-they-donā€™t-work ā€œrenuablesā€.
    So it will be scare tactic after scare tacticā€¦..

    1. BOF
      December 31, 2022

      Quite right Cuibono.
      And testing with dodgy tests never meant for this purpose, according to the inventor.

      1. Hope
        December 31, 2022

        C,
        Certainly not discriminatory no matter how illogical of other govt failings.

      2. Jim Whitehead
        December 31, 2022

        Cuibono and BOF, ++++++. Thank you

    2. Donna
      December 31, 2022

      Correct. I’ve had enough of being “nudged” by the authoritarians who infest the Establishment. Once your eyes are open to the fear-based tactics they deploy to make you comply you can’t stop seeing them. And with that understanding, you can largely ignore it.

      1. Jim Whitehead
        December 31, 2022

        Donna, ++++. Reliably sound comment once more, thank you.

      2. Zorro
        December 31, 2022

        Exactly once you look behind the curtain, the fear goesā€¦

        Zorro

    3. Cuibono
      December 31, 2022

      https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/515/environment-and-climate-change-committee/news/173479/government-must-support-behaviour-change-to-meet-climate-targets/ā€œKey recommendations

      The Committee recommends that the Government should: ā€Æ

      learn from examples of where it has enabled behaviour change, including during the COVID-19 pandemic, and enable people to make the necessary shifts in the key areas of how we travel,ā€Æwhat we eat, what we buyā€Æandā€Æhow we use energy at homeā€

      1. Mickey Taking
        December 31, 2022

        Does it suggest which media might be referenced, and those to avoid? Just asking.

        1. Jim Whitehead
          December 31, 2022

          MT, Iā€™d suggest GB News, Epoch Times, ExposĆ© (there does seem to be a degree of over-enthusiasm with ExposĆ©, but there are many babies in its bath water), and donā€™t overlook the previously unwatchable Russell Brand.

          1. Jim Whitehead
            December 31, 2022

            Mustn’t forget Dr. John Campbell, he seems to be increasingly frustrated by the secrecy and by the evidence of disclosed data showing perplexing and seriously disturbing ill-health effects. Ill-health effects of what? Well, Dr. John has to be careful with his word choice for fear of cancellation.

    4. Sharon
      December 31, 2022

      Off topic – I see on The Dossier; Nigeria offered the population the programmable digital currency, but because few people trust the government, there was only a 0.4% take up – so itā€™s been abandoned!

      Thereā€™s great distrust in our government, but rather too many people here think paying with their phone or card is convenientā€¦ so who knows how that might go when introduced here. Fortunately, we are still in the planning stage, so that delays thing for a while.

  20. BOF
    December 31, 2022

    None of the restrictions or measures worked before against an airborne virus! So let’s bring them back again? There must be daft scientists and modelers giving instructions again. Well they may as well start building a wall to keep it out.

    My personal statement.
    I will never be tested again. I will never wear a mask (never did before). I will never be “vaccinated”. I will never be imprisoned in my home.

    1. Martyn G
      December 31, 2022

      I know exactly where you are coming from, BOF, as I feel the same, now. I lasted 6 weeks into the first strict lockdown, unable to get shopping delivered at home, replying on much younger neighbours to shop for me and so on. And then, having been watching death and survival rates being so low, amidst all the hype and sheer fear-inducing propaganda, I threw Teddy out of cot, declared myself exempt from mask wearing and other than taking basic precautions to reduce risk of exposure, went back to my usual way of life, including 30 miles in car to and from my boat on the Thames.
      I suspect that if ‘they’ impose another such lockdown, there will be mass disobedience on a scale they will be unable to control.

      1. BOF
        December 31, 2022

        Well done Martyn G.
        One further statement. I will never have any kind of health passport or digital ID.

    2. Jim Whitehead
      December 31, 2022

      BOF, +++++ good for you, sincerely, I am not vaxxed and never been tested. The restrictions on flying (and thus missing out on valuable conferences in Europe and USA) are privations that I can accept, knowing that much worse is to come with the totalitarian plans already being flagged up. Resistance will probably become increasingly difficult but better to start resisting before the tsunami arrives. Nigeria and Digital Currency? Thank you, Sharon, hat tip there.

    3. Mark B
      January 1, 2023

      Ditto

  21. Donna
    December 31, 2022

    Surely all the “vaccinated” people – those who believed or succumbed to the Government’s propaganda and coercion to participate in a mass medical experiment – are protected from the Wuhan ‘Flu now they’re 2/3/4/5 jabs in?

    So why would the Government want to stop Chinese people from coming to the UK?

    Or are they now going to admit that the “vaccines” actually offer very little protection from the virus and the best protection is herd immunity ….. which is what China is now, very belatedly attempting after pointlessly imprisoning millions of their people for almost 3 years?

    There is no point preventing Chinese people from coming to the UK because whatever variant is prevalent in China is already circulating around the world.

    1. Lifelogic
      December 31, 2022

      Even ā€œVery little protectionā€ might be an over statement looking at the stats.

      1. Donna
        December 31, 2022

        True, although I believe if you are over 80 with several co-morbidities the data shows it might delay your imminent appointment with the Grim Reaper for a few months, but since it’s impossible to prove one way or the other, even that possibility has to be taken with a huge dose of salt.

        1. Jim Whitehead
          December 31, 2022

          Donna, or might the taking of the vaccine by the ‘more vulnerable’ simply hasten their demise, and who would know? ‘More vulnerable’ to the usual health predators must surely include vulnerability to a vaccine which has a Yellow Card record of almost countless ill-effects (TCW, Kathy Gyngell), and the average age of lifespan of around 82 years would be little affected.

      2. Mickey Taking
        December 31, 2022

        Sir Chris Whitty has warned that thousands of middle-aged people are now dying of heart conditions after people were reluctant to bother the NHS at the height of the pandemic.
        This year has seen a higher number of deaths than normal from preventable conditions as many have been unable to get statins or pills for blood pressure in lockdowns.
        As of now, there are currently 800 more people dying each week over normal levels, and only half of that is due to Covid, The Times has reported.
        While the reasonings for these deaths are still unclear, the chief medical officer has now alerted the Government about how barriers to accessing medication may have contributed to this.

        1. Hat man
          December 31, 2022

          That’s right, MT. Very worrying numbers of excess deaths, and concerns about whether barriers to medication might be responsible for some of them.
          But the government’s priority now is to try and stop people catching a cold, it seems.

        2. Lynn Atkinson
          December 31, 2022

          And British live birth rate has dropped 15% – well thatā€™s last Juneā€™s figure before the Govt stopped publishing the stats.
          To the jabs are doing their job!

        3. Donna
          December 31, 2022

          There will be multiple reasons for the excess deaths all the heavily “vaccinated” countries are experiencing; closing down the NHS to anything but Covid will be one of them. But the Government seems very reluctant to consider any other contributory factors.

        4. BOF
          December 31, 2022

          Well MT, how about the fact that excess deaths have corresponded with jabs and boosters. This being the case in every country with high “vaccination” rates but apparently unremarkable to Whitty! However, remarkable and alarming to life insurers that excess deaths are running at up to 15% above average. I have not found Whitty or any member of SAGE remotely credible throughout the past three years.

        5. Zorro
          December 31, 2022

          He had nothing to do or influence about that of course as Chief Medical Officer. He was just a piece of furniture on the podium with Bozo – dream on Whitty, you are into it up to your eyeballs.

          Zorro

        6. Lifelogic
          December 31, 2022

          Probable causes in order of importance almost certainly looking at the stats and reports.
          1. Vaccine damage
          2. Delays in NHS treatments or GP access or reluctance to attend.
          3. Long Covid.

          It is far less than half that are actually caused by Covid (rather than just it being perhaps a minor factor life death within 28 days for having a cold).

          See the excellent most recent Dr John Campbell videos on the frightening extent of very many adverse vaccine reactions. The question is how early did they know of this attrition rate and why are they still pushing them?

          1. Lifelogic
            December 31, 2022

            Or various combinations of the above.

    2. Mickey Taking
      December 31, 2022

      None claimed it was 100% – it never could be.

      1. Donna
        December 31, 2022

        The Pharmaceutical Companies claimed around 95% effectiveness …… “forgetting” to point out the difference between absolute and relative risk reduction.

        Relative risk reduction was around 95% in their small trial groups. Absolute risk reduction in the population as a whole was less than 1%. REALLY effective – not and anyone looking at the Yellow Card stats has a good understanding of the safety claim as well.

        From the NIH “the 95% RRR for BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) vaccine [3] corresponds to 0.85% ARR “

      2. Lifelogic
        December 31, 2022

        Well Biden did – if you take the vaccine you wonā€™t catch it – and others dire journalist and propagandists.

        Not effective, not safe (and certainly for people under 50) not remotely needed. The net harm vaccines still appallingly being coerced into people.

        1. Mickey Taking
          December 31, 2022

          yawn.

      3. Lynn Atkinson
        December 31, 2022

        Biden did! Problem is it turns out to be -!00%.

    3. ChrisS
      December 31, 2022

      Having carefully avoided Covid for almost three years, my wife and I contracted it just before Christmas, We self-isolated, as, I hope, any thoughtful person would have done, but some friends suggested we shouldn’t bother !

      My wife tested negative yesterday but I was still positive so I will use another test on Sunday in the hope that it has finally gone. Fortunately we had a box of 7 NHS testing kits here.

      We have been lucky : it really was no worse than a heavy cold ( not even as bad as flu ), but some posting here are forgetting that people in our age group ( 70+ ) were hospitalised and even dying of it in quite large numbers before our brilliant scientists developed our vaccines which, unlike the Chinese ones, actually worked !

      1. Lynn Atkinson
        December 31, 2022

        The ā€˜testā€™ canā€™t differentiate between Covid and flu. Maybe you had the flu. However the ā€˜testā€™ are very dangerous, twisting on a thin wall at the back of the airway adjacent to the brain. If you have had to wear masks because the virus is in your saliva, why not take a bit of spit to test, why this dangerous stuff adjacent to the brain?

      2. SM
        December 31, 2022

        I hope you get well soon, Chris, but you may recall that many deaths among the elderly were being attributed to Covid without proof, and often without the deceased having even been examined by a qualified professional.

      3. Clough
        December 31, 2022

        Chris, it seems you’re forgetting the difference between dying of and dying with something. A FOI request was put in some time ago about how this applied to the officially announced ‘Covid deaths’ numbers, and it turned out that at least 90% of death certificates mentioning Covid also mentioned serious co-morbidities.

        That is no doubt why in this country the average age of death with Covid has been given as about 81, more or less exactly the same as the average life expectancy anyway.

        Oh, and was the ‘brilliant scientists’ part meant to be satire?

      4. BOF
        December 31, 2022

        ChrisS
        I am 78 and an extremely fortunate survivor of Covid 19. The main reason so many of our age group died was due to the fact that effective treatments like Ivermectin and Hydroxychloraquine were withdrawn before the introduction of the so called vaccines. They have now been proved effective in clinical trials. This act to me has been one of the great crimes of Cv19. The pharmaceuticals made billions out of the mRNA vaccines while there was little profit in treatments. I leave you to draw your own conclusions.

    4. Jim Whitehead
      December 31, 2022

      Donna, +++++++++. Common sense requires logic which requires common sense.

  22. Barrie Emmett
    December 31, 2022

    Proof of a negative test.

  23. Fred Finder
    December 31, 2022

    I suggest the member for North West Leicestershire be consulted.

    1. BOF
      December 31, 2022

      Yes FF, and he should be listened to with great respect and humility by his peers.

      1. Lifelogic
        December 31, 2022

        +1

      2. Mickey Taking
        December 31, 2022

        more pissing in the wind. I suggest you listen to me – my opinion is as good or better than his.

        1. Bill B.
          December 31, 2022

          Says Mickey Taking.

          Keep up the entertainment for us in the New Year, MT. 2023 won’t be a barrel of laughs.

  24. Sharon
    December 31, 2022

    Iā€™ve changed my mind a few times on this topic. My first reaction was not to test the Chinese travellers, but to ban them entry for a few weeksā€¦ but watching GB News and listening to Talk Radio yesterday I heard one message of concern. That was, if we demand proof of vaccine and insist on testing the Chinese, that will be the inch the government will grab until itā€™s a yard, and restrictions get re-introduced here. Two hospitals have already a foot or two, and reintroduced masking and refusal of visitors.

    So, either ban the Chinese entry or do nothing, our natural immunity should be fairly robust, and we are a vaccinated country (though I believe that leaves the more vaccinated vulnerable to catching Covid.)

    1. BOF
      December 31, 2022

      Sharon
      The more boosters people have, the likely they are to catch Omicron!

      1. BOF
        December 31, 2022

        ‘the more likely’. Sorry.

  25. Sea_Warrior
    December 31, 2022

    I wonder who in the government was getting in the way of the right policy but I applaud this latest U-turn. We cannot trust a single word uttered by the Chinese government. If it had a dangerous new variant circulating quickly in its population, it would hush the news up. And let’s not forget that at the start of the COVID crisis, it shut down air-travel into/out of Wuhan while arrogantly demanding that the world accepted its citizens arriving by international flights. In any case, the evil CCP is fragile and in need of destruction. Anything that annoys China’s middle class will get my vote.
    P.S. Malaysia is temperature screening all arriving passengers. I suspect that we don’t make enough use of that particular technology.

    1. Walt
      December 31, 2022

      Agreed

  26. John McDonald
    December 31, 2022

    Sir John you may not wish to post my comment as it refers to our email exchanges in February 2020. I referred to the Whuan Laboratory experiments and the danger of allowing air travel of passengers into the Country. You did not agree for fear of damaging the Economy. Preventing passenger travel by air into the country would not have damaged the Economy and would have greatly slow the development of the virus giving more time to take measures to defend against it.
    We now know that vaccination does not prevent the spread of the virus, you can test negative one day and positive the following day. And if you believe that on balance vaccination is on a good approach, you still need a different vaccine for each variant.
    So as I said back in February 2020 ban passenger flights from China for the next three weeks so we have time to study the current Chinese variant of the virus. Common sense really, but almost non-existent in Government these days. Put the UK citizen first , don’t be afraid to offend the Chinese and the virtue signalling liberal elite.

    1. Mickey Taking
      December 31, 2022

      Are you offering to travel, catch a virus and return for testing hoping you bring the latest variant?

      1. John McDonald
        December 31, 2022

        My first reaction to your comment was to ignore it given the name of your account.
        But assuming you are trying to be serious – Even with an air travel ban there will still be a few visitors from China entering the country so there will be no need for me to travel to China and back. Likewise anyone else for that matter. The aim is reduce the instantaneous volume/quantity of the infection arriving in order to manage it. We will soon find out if we need to worry. This is the problem. Do we need to be concerned ? Is the China variant no worse than the current variants circulating in the UK or is it one that will send the Government into panic mode and try to introduce restrictions on all of us, and not just visitors from China (including Hong Kong and Territories). Trust that answers you question to me

        1. Clough
          January 1, 2023

          What China variant, John? None has been reported. They’re still with Omicron last time I heard.

  27. Radar
    December 31, 2022

    Agreed, as China is very late with opening up after Covid with rest of the world the UK has a case in asking travellers from China for an recent negative covid test before boarding any flight out of china.

    What I am vehemently against, though, is the introduction of an digital vaccine passport for an global verification system to facilitate international travel.

    Further, the WHO’s Intergovernmental Negotiation Body (INB) cannot be trusted and need careful scrutiny when they start talking about a ‘pandemic treaty’ at the 76th World Health Assembly next year in 2023.

    1. Cuibono
      December 31, 2022

      +many
      Yes! You must be right!
      THATā€™s what they are up to.
      Our appalling govt. doing their bit to further ā€œvaccineā€ passports.
      Only following orders though.

    2. BOF
      December 31, 2022

      Radar. Agreed.

  28. Nigl
    December 31, 2022

    As ever too late, prevarication over leadership. And in related news, we see the Permanent Secretary in the Home Office who runs a, still not fit for office department and particularly the failed illegal migrant programme, indeed his department actively briefs against the Home Secretary and last year in a social media group discussed how to thwart the scheme, gets a knighthood.

    A failing government rewarding failure.

    No pushback from the likes of our host. Itā€™s an utter (actually a stronger word is needed) disgrace,

    1. BOF
      December 31, 2022

      +1 Nigl
      Honors that downgrade even those awarded to the worthy.

  29. Brian Tomkinson
    December 31, 2022

    Here we go again. If testing, which is unreliable in any case, is necessary then why wait until 5th January. No, this is just more state control of people. If you and government are really concerned about strain on NHS stop illegal migrants entering daily and being given preferrential treatment.

  30. agricola
    December 31, 2022

    China is not known for its clarity on the origins of Covid in Wuhan, the extent of Covid limiting injections, their effectiveness or any other information that helps the rest of the world contain it. We do not know of new strains arising in China due to the policy that only the chinese government is entitled to knowledge of anything in China. Under such circumstances we should insist on pre travel testing and limit chinese visitors to those who have an essential need to be in the UK.

  31. Old Albion
    December 31, 2022

    How can you trust the Chinese to give honest negative tests before boarding ??
    No Chinese allowed into the UK. Fullstop.

  32. Walt
    December 31, 2022

    China has shown that it cannot be trusted. Covid-19 came from there and caused us and others great trouble. China tried to hush it up, exported it to the world, and has not been open about its source. An engineered virus escaped from a biolab appears likely, hence Wuhan Flu. There is still lack of clarity about the virus and the vaccines. So, caution please: require a full formal negative test result shortly before travel to the UK and a temperature check passed before entry. And please implement it now, not delayed until hundreds have already got here unchecked. Remember the delays in 2020, no controls whilst people from known concentrations of infection (Italy and elsewhere) came in unchecked and circulated among us.

  33. Joan Sawyers
    December 31, 2022

    Totally agree that people from China should be tested before they get on a plane, once they are here itā€™s too late and we donā€™t have any hotel space to quarantine them in. We just canā€™t go through 2020/21 again. If it upsets them then so be it.

  34. Sue
    December 31, 2022

    The pcr test is sensitive enough to pick up even fragments of dead virus in a recovered, healthy person. I think the rapid home test is a better guide.

    Basically Omicron is the best means for immunity- so long as the person has no co-morbidities.

    So, so long as itā€™s one or other version of Omicron in China – which reports suggest it is, we shouldnā€™t be overly concerned.

    A mutation like the original or Alpha strain should be considered differently perhaps.

    We have so many hospital admissions with non-Covid infections right now BECAUSE we were locked up for so long and had no chance to develop the natural immunity we normally would have gained. (Itā€™s why pretty much everyone seems to have had a cold over Christmas!)

    Whatever comes out of this new Chinese wave, we should protect the at risk – not lock up the healthy.

  35. Mike Wilson
    December 31, 2022

    Inject everyone here with Covid. The fittest will survive. Let as many Chinese people come as want to come. We have not reached the Toriesā€™ ā€˜immigration in the tens of millionsā€™ yet.

  36. Wokinghamite
    December 31, 2022

    The government should require a negative test. It would be madness not to do so, in my view.

  37. Kenneth
    December 31, 2022

    I think we should stop all immigration from China until their situation is under control.

    It’s illogical that the government wanted to lock us away a while ago and is now so lax about letting a virus into the country.

  38. Bryan Harris
    December 31, 2022

    When you consider the fact that these covid tests produce inaccurate results as much as 50% of the time, you have to wonder why anybody relies on them for any reason…

    Also, when there is an officially stated survival rate of 97% for those affected by the virus, most of whom will have symptoms no more severe than a bad cold, you have to ask what all the fuss is about?

    As some enlightened experts are now saying that we should now live with the virus, it seems only sensible to reverse all irrational propaganda on the subject and get on with our lives.

  39. JayGee
    December 31, 2022

    You talk of “Chinese” visitors”. Do you mean “visitors travelling from China”?

  40. Dave Andrews
    December 31, 2022

    I see little point in requiring Chinese to have covid tests, given the virus is widely distributed in the UK already. If anything, require passengers to be free of all respiratory viral infections as a consideration to their fellow passengers. You have covid, flu or a cold, you don’t get on the plane.

  41. Iain Moore
    December 31, 2022

    As we cannot trust a word the Chinese say on Covid, who knows what is actually going on there with the Covid infections, so I suppose it makes sense , but why should we trust the tests the Chinese administer?

  42. majorfrustration
    December 31, 2022

    Usual dither from Westminster. I remember that in 2020 Turin locked down but we still allowed flights from Turin into the country without any checks. Pre test flights for all leaving China plus temperature tests on arrival.
    Overall I think the Government has run out of brain capacity and can only deal with simple things.

  43. ChrisS
    December 31, 2022

    When we offer a complete medical system at no charge to patients it is a no-brainer to test those most likely to have Covid before they travel.

    What we need to ensure is that EVERY facility in the NHS is ready and willing to charge patients who do not qualify for free treatment and that credit card details are taken and an amount is reserved on the card BEFORE they receive even a diagnosis, let alone treatment.

    Unfortunately the Pre-Madonas running the health service and almost every doctor regard it as quite beneath them to charge for anything and the taxpayer picks up the bill.

    1. Mickey Taking
      December 31, 2022

      I’ve been thinking about pre-Madonna (Madge to a lot of us). Pretty difficult to offer who got the pulses racing as she did. Prima donna is quite appropriate she is of Italian descent.
      I’d have thought the typical GP receptionist was more prima donna than any doctor.

  44. Ray Veysey
    December 31, 2022

    It’s a question of fundamental trust, and there is no reason why we should trust the Chinese. They have proved to be completely casual about the threat they post to the rest of the world. It’s support for countries with the same hate for the West is an example. No, a message must be sent, they must not be encouraged to think that they can behave like they have and be treated as if nothing happened.

  45. Delphine Gray-Fisk
    December 31, 2022

    Stop all flights from from China for the foreseeable future – until they’ve got over their delayed pandemic

  46. Bloke
    December 31, 2022

    The 1st duty of the UK is to protect the UK.

  47. Elli ron
    December 31, 2022

    China has a proven track record in being unreliable in providing correct and timely information in regards to the pandemic.
    Any person who was in China in the 3 weeks prior coming here, from ANY embarkation and ANY nationality, including British, should provide a clear covid test before being allowed to start the journey to the UK

  48. Ben Elliott-Sim
    December 31, 2022

    Omicold – the clue’s in the name.
    Please don’t give an inch to the doctatorship, shamelessly useless computer modellers and public health weirdos upon whose advice so much damage has been done by the regime.

    1. BOF
      December 31, 2022

      Well said BEN.

    2. Zorro
      December 31, 2022

      Indeed, I canā€™t wait for the next insane models from the usual suspectsā€¦

      Zorro

  49. Kayla Tomlinson
    December 31, 2022

    The UK definitely should impose Covid testing on Chinese visitors! Who on earth in the government thought otherwise? They certainly shouldn’t be in government. Their priority should be to protect UK citizens.

  50. Bert Young
    December 31, 2022

    It is sensible to require anyone from a high Covid rated country to have a positive result test before entry to the UK ; China at the moment is certainly in this category . Our NHS is presently overwhelmed and should not be exposed to any further constraint from tourists . I am favourably inclined towards healing the rift with China ; the problem is not with their ordinary citizens , it is with the Chinese leadership .

  51. MWB
    December 31, 2022

    The government is right to stop Chinese from coming here, unless they can prove a negative test result.
    They’ve done the right thing, no doubt after seeing the direction of public opinion, and with an eye to their own futures after the next General Election.
    All visitors should also have to show that they have adequate travel health insurance, or be refused entry to UK.

  52. David Cooper
    December 31, 2022

    If international travellers from China were potential vectors of a highly infectious and either seriously harmful or deadly disease, there should be an immediate ban on their entry into the UK, and any recent visitors still here should be tracked down and quarantined.
    The fact that a mere prior testing requirement (easily fabricated) is scheduled for 5 January gives the impression, as with lockdown and masks, that the policy behind the requirement is based only upon paranoia, superstition and theatre.
    In the case of the last of these, if it is partly to enable The Snake to proclaim just how tough he is getting with China, we may reasonably ask him why this toughness never extended to a call for reparations from the nation who created Covid and then lied about it, covered it up and monetised it.

  53. colin carter
    December 31, 2022

    all visitors from China should be tested before they leave and when they arrive.

  54. formula57
    December 31, 2022

    Tradition and etiquette surely demands that the Government repeatedly tells us there is no point to any restrictions only to some while later when it really is pointless announce restrictions but leaving a window of opportunity for the last of the infected to accelerate their arrive before those come into force.

    As to what should be done, there is clear risk that may crystallize into material hazard and so of course there should be immediate restrictions, certainly including demanding travellers produce current test results and then also random testing of arrivals from any point of embarkation believed to be a site of disease. The duty is to protect people in the U.K. and measures to reduce risk and provide information ought to be taken, no matter the inconvenience to travellers nor the prospect of annoying foreign governments. Over to our pusillanimous, prevaricating, blasĆ© Government – that can leave its duff scientists and abundance of flags out of it on this occasion.

  55. Roy Grainger
    December 31, 2022

    No point putting travel restrictions on again, the variant circulating in China is already here and if it were going to cause a problem it would have done so already. The NHS seems to be permanently overloaded so attempting to delay things by a few weeks will have no impact.

    OAM I see Prof Whitty is in the papers telling us about a big increase in non-Covid illnesses and deaths (eg. cancer, heart) due to reduced screening and treatments during the lockdowns. I hope the public inquiry asks him whether this increase is in-line with the model predictions he used when he decided to impose the lockdowns in the first place (actually I’m pretty sure the models didn’t address non-Covid deaths at all).

  56. Ian B
    December 31, 2022

    While this is a virus and like all viruses it will find a way in. There is a however, while the Government had full grasp of the situation last time, it left the door open to long, which then overwhelmed the system.

    It seemed more of a question of snuggling up-to the Chinese so as not to offend, not a concern for the UK Citizen or the NHS.

    A historical caution would be, last time the noted route was Chinese visiting a trade fair in Italy passed it on for it to enter the UK with holiday makers on ski trips to the Country.

    Caution should be heightened by all.

    Sir John, a Happy New Year to you and yours. The same to all your contributors on this most welcome Blog Diary.
    Still amazed at your energy and devotion to this Diary and the UK as a whole.

  57. Barbara
    December 31, 2022

    The tests are not accurate. I see no benefit using something inaccurate which keeps the world in a state of panic whilst simultaneously prolonging fear, uncertainty and doubt,

    ā€œThe whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.ā€ H.L. Mencken, 1949

  58. a-tracy
    December 31, 2022

    On reflection. As usual our media have whipped up a storm about something that will result in Chinese people that may not have even left the UK for a decade feeling like they are being eyed suspiciously as potential threats to our health.

    This could all have been avoided when China first allowed flights out. When our news streams are telling us in December there are serious lockdowns with new variants, violent protests resulting in a change of lockdown policy and a new freedom to leave, but hey folks its all ok now Chinese potentially infected folk can travel here freely untested. What did government expect? The 5 Jan action is too late unless this is in relation to the great movements of people for the Chinese New Year celebrations are there lots more flights to the UK anticipated from that date? BBC 7 Dec 2022 ā€” China is lifting its most severe Covid policies – including forcing people into quarantine camps – just a week after landmark protests …that was when action on testing should have taken place.

  59. Graham Lear
    December 31, 2022

    We should never forget that the Covid virus not just hit the UK so hard but also the whole world came from China. The same China that for years has refused to share its Covid data with the world.

    Therefore, China and its citizens must be treated differently than the rest of the world. They must show that they do not have Covid when entering the UK, if they can’t do that that then they are turned around and sent back on the next available plane flying to China at their expense. It seems prudent to do this to me.

  60. David Paine
    December 31, 2022

    Makes sense to require covid tests for travellers from countries or regions with covid issues.

  61. glen cullen
    December 31, 2022

    A knighthood for COP26 Alok Sharma MP, the supporter of all things UN, Woke, Chinese and imported ā€¦.this government has really lost the plot

    1. Mickey Taking
      January 1, 2023

      a travesty of justification. A tarnished gong.

  62. Dr John de los Angeles
    December 31, 2022

    I believe that the Government should have followed Italy and imposed these test requirements immediately. My Chinese wife fully agrees. The Chinese Communist Party will wish to destabilise the west and export new strains of the virus through travel. Why are we waiting?!!

  63. Jim Whitehead
    December 31, 2022

    Donna, +++++++

  64. Chickpea
    December 31, 2022

    They should definitely ā€˜notā€™ be allowed to come to the U.K., with or without a test. How do we know it isnā€™t a new Virus that has once again ā€˜escapedā€™ from a laboratory? Seems strange that itā€™s still as bad or worse than it was three years ago. We werenā€™t told the truth about the last one.

    After the last three years we should not be taking any chances whatsoever.

  65. mancunius
    December 31, 2022

    By all means let’s test incoming travellers from China – particularly given the sheer numbers of its population and its lockdown-induced lack of immunity. But here in the UK we must have *No. More. Lockdowns. Not Ever. Not under any circumstances.* OK, some sensible personal precautions to avoid infection as far as reasonable, but no more NHS- and UN-induced panic, and no more restrictions on personal freedom.
    ‘Maybe the NHS can’t cope’ – don’t make me laugh: It can’t cope even in good times – it has already failed every winter, with or without pandemics. People should accept that their personal mortality and/or lack of immunity is not a reason to kill off our vital freedoms and the economy, to imprison ourselves, to cower in fear.
    We used to understand this. The faintheart CBI and landed Tories in 1940 wanted peace with Hitler to avoid the risk of death or being a bit poorer. Other braver souls knew that fighting for the future life and freedom of the nation was more important than individual survival.
    ‘Extreme’, you say? No, what we had in 2020 was totalitarian tyranny – it vitiated the instincts of the people, made them lazy, captious and authoritarian. We are better than that.

    1. a-tracy
      January 1, 2023

      I agree mancunius.

  66. Mark
    January 1, 2023

    If there is a medical case for travel intervention it should apply regardless of origin. It seems unlikely that the present covid strains would qualify for that, whereas we should perhaps be more vigilant for diseases such as TB and certainly Ebola and Zika virus for example. However monitoring for more dangerous disease outbreaks should be ongoing around the world. Successful programmes of immunisation and border control have largely eliminated smallpox and polio and substantially reduced other dangerous diseases. That does depend on having vaccines that work or other ways of eliminating the pathogens, such as the extensive DDT programme that did much to reduce the areas subject to malaria.

    I doubt though whether we should be quite so free with admitting Chinese more generally. It seems that they are too often here to steal our know-how, attack political refugees and undermine us. We need much more careful vetting on those grounds, and otherwise limiting numbers to the point where we can provide adequate surveillance where they don’t pass the vetting securely.

  67. William Murphy
    January 2, 2023

    There should be absolutely no move back towards any legal restrictions to individual liberty on the pretext of the Covid shamdemic. For believers in freedom the last three years have represented the greatest setback since the Second World War where who societies have accepted unprecedented levels of government control – imposing discrimination based on willing to take vaccines, trying to dictate what people wear, where they can travel etc. Restrictions on travel from China risks simply being the ‘thin edge of the wedge’ where we return to the cycle of doom involving governments taking over societies and economies on the pretext of what the evidence has shown was in reality a non-existent health ’emergency’. There will always be new strains of viruses – we have to make a stand for freedom. I am no fan of China’s handling of this issue or indeed of their truly appalling regime, but even in this case enough is enough.

Comments are closed.