WHAT FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT ?

Chaos at Dover – what a surprise. Drivers have been told that they require a negative covid test to be allowed to travel to France. The drivers at the front of the queue to Dover port have been told to drive back to Marston, some 26 miles away to get the test. They are told  "It’s not us. It’s the French.” Why would someone, whose been waiting three days, get out of the queue to go 26 miles away to get a test and then wait possibly another three days to get back through the 26 miles of traffic? What is wrong with taking the test to the front of the queue and start testing the drivers from the front of the queue and work back. If the test results take 30 mins, after the first 30 minutes, the queue can start moving, and anyone who tests positive can be taken out of the queue. That would seem to satisfy any problem of equitable treatment.

Why have a row with drivers when the tests can be performed onsite? Surely it is easier to set us a testing site at the entrance to the port than to organise turning back heavy vehicles and causing traffic jams in two directions. What is the thinking behind this?

“They told her they will not start allowing vehicles through until "protesters" - several dozen drivers - move from the roundabout at the entrance. But the drivers have said they will not move as they do not want to go to the back of the queue and cannot move as the road is blocked in both directions. “

Why are the authorities making things so difficult?  Test people at the front and get on with it. A senseless confrontation initiated by officials lacking basic common sense. Get a grip. On top of which this is not something that hasn't happened before, as this news item from July 2016 can testify.

It is enough to make one weep at the stupidity of the ‘job’s worth’ mentality of some British functionaries. This attitude is not strictly British, and one has encountered it in other countries, but somehow, in a country where the judicial concept of Equity began in the 13^th Century, expanded in the 16^th century and refined in the 19 century, the principles of fairness would be second nature; but no, that is clearly not the case here.

Now I may be wrong about the situation in Dover, indeed I may have got the wrong end of the stick, and, if so, I profusely apologise to the officials attempting to regularise the situation at ports of exit round the country. The logistics of testing and traffic control in an already chaotic situation must be overwhelming. Perhaps my suggesting there may be a simple solution is being naïve.

Whatever happens from here on, in respect of travel abroad, will change dramatically. We will most definitely have to arrive at what ever port of exit at least 2 if not 3 hours before the booked travel time. The same will apply to Eurostar travel from St Pancras, making what could be a quick three to three and a half hour journey (door to door from Lambeth to Paris 9eme) into a six hour marathon, and it will cost more. What is the use of high-speed trains when they are slowed down by red tape?

I rant on because, if nothing else, the restrictions on freedom of movement imposed by the corona virus within our own borders, are a foretaste of the restrictions on our freedom of movement beyond our borders. Under the guise of taking back control, the British public have given up a degree of freedom they may never regain.