Health and Safety a nice little earner

HEALTH AND SAFETY A NICE LITTLE EARNER

At the beginning of May 2021 we returned to the UK from Spain where we spent 8 months in various states of regional and local lockdown along with regular evening curfews. 

In order to return to the UK by Brittany Ferry we had to show a negative covid test taken within a 72 hour period before we could board. We also had to fill in an exhaustive passenger locator form and show proof that we had ordered and paid for a day 2 and day 8 covid test for the uk.

We paid €30.00 each for our Spanish test which apparently was cheap by comparison to some regions where charges were as high as €150 per person. We then had to pay £198.00 each for our day 2 / day 8 UK test kit.

Everyone boarding the ferry had to produce a negative covid test certificate and passengers were encouraged to stay in their cabins as much as possible during the 24 hour crossing from Santander to Portsmouth with the exception of going to the restaurant for an evening meal and breakfast the next morning. Should be safe enough as all the passengers had negative covid tests in the last 72 hours.

The ferry Galicia was fully booked and has a max capacity of 1680 passengers, 550 cars and 64 Lorries.

Lorry drivers are currently exempt from covid testing for some reason which meant there were at least 64 people on the ferry with an unknown covid status. There was no segregation between passengers and lorry drivers in the public areas, decks and the restaurant. Lorry drivers were mixing freely with all other passengers.

I don’t know what the status of the French Brittany ferry staff was but I think they may also be in the professions that are also exempt from covid testing. 

I have nothing against lorry drivers or ferry staff and it is not their fault that the government has made their professions exempt from covid testing but where’s the health and safety logic in this arrangement. You take all these precautions and then they throw in a wild card at the eleventh hour making a complete nonsense of the whole thing.

After disembarkation passengers are required to travel to their chosen destination and isolate for 10 days whilst undergoing a day 2 and a day 8 test presumably to find out if they were infected by lorry drivers or ferry staff on the crossing.

You are not allowed to leave your home except to leave your home and go out to find a Royal Mail Priority Post Box to send off your test. You must do this twice during your 10 day isolation period.

We are required to spend a minimum of £198.00 per person for a test provided by PRIVATE companies specifically recommended by the government on the .GOV website. The required tests for 2 of us added £448.00 to our travel costs.

If you take the maximum capacity of the ferry 1680 passengers and deduct the 64 lorry drivers you are left with 1616 passengers at a minimum of £198.00 per test. This comes to a total of £319,968.00 per ferry crossing which makes me think that this is more about the money and not the health and safety of the nation. We’ve seen what they did with PPE contracts and this is just another example of how they operate. 

Oh and just to punish expats returning to the uk we found out that whilst the rest of the uk population is currently enjoying a stamp duty holiday on new property purchases until the end of June 2021 buyers who have been out of the UK for more than 6 months must pay full stamp duty on property purchases. This was introduced 1st April 2021 to coincide with the Brexit 90 day deadline on 31st March and the return of many expats from abroad. The expat stamp duty tax a little gift from Brexit and Rishi Sunak. 

Stay Safe.