Government ministers have cast potential doubts over Brits’ summer holiday plans following quarantine measures imposed this weekend for those travelling to the UK from Spain.
Foregin Secretary Dominic Raab appeared on Sky News to speak to Sophy Ridge on Sunday morning.
He addressed and defended the government’s decision to impose two-week quarantine measures on those travelling to the UK from Spain – which took effect on Sunday – by stating that “we took the decision as swiftly as we could” and that “we can’t make apologies for doing so”.
He continued: “We must be able to take swift, decisive action, particularly in relation to localised, or internationally in relation to Spain or a particular country, where we see we must take action. Otherwise, we risk reinfection into the UK, potentially a second wave here and then another lockdown.”
“So yes, I understand it is disruptive for those going through this who are in Spain or have been considering going, but we must though be able to take swift, decisive action to protect the UK, because we’ve made such progress in getting the virus down, and prevent the virus retaking hold in the UK.”
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The 14-day quarantine affects Britons coming back from mainland Spain, the Canary Islands (Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, La Palma, La Gomera, El Hierro and La Graciosa), and the Balearic Islands (Majorca, Menorca, Ibiza, and Formentera).
'Why was the decision taken with so little notice to introduce a quarantine for Britons returning from Spain?'
— Sophy Ridge on Sunday (@RidgeOnSunday) July 26, 2020
In relation to countries being removed from the government’s ‘safe travel’ list in the future and whether ministers would ever consider placing similar travel restrictions or quarantine measures onto any other countries, Mr Raab revealed that no guarantee could be given to that at this point.
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He stated that: “As we’ve found with Spain, we can’t give a guarantee”, and added that there was “an element of uncertainty this summer if people go abroad”.
Mr Raab said the government could not risk giving any “vague advice” to holidaymakers.
He continued: “There is a cutoff with changes in rules and advice we give, so I appreciate that that’s difficult and it can be disruptive, but it would be far worse to either muddy the waters or to hold back and delay from taking the measures when we need to take them.”
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“The reason this was taken at reasonably short notice was the spike in Spain that we’ve responded to… so it was the real-time response.”
Late on Saturday the government still said Spain was safe for travel. Shouldn't it have warned people about a possible quarantine?
— Sophy Ridge on Sunday (@RidgeOnSunday) July 26, 2020
Health Minister Helen Whately has also spoken to a number of media outlets this morning regarding the government’s plans to impose quarantine measures onto travel into the UK from other countries in the future.
Speaking to Sky News – particularly in relation to the widespread speculation that France or Germany could be next to join Spain in being removed from the ‘safe travel’ list, she stated that: “We have to keep the situation under review and I think that is what the public would expect us to do.”
“If we see rates going up in a country where at the moment there is no need to quarantine, we would have to take action because we cannot take the risk of coronavirus being spread again across the UK.”
She also said that individuals that have booked, or are currently booking holidays need to understand that “we are in a global pandemic” and the government was right to take “rapid action” where necessary.
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"We had to take rapid action."@Helen_Whately says the govt has "done the "right thing" in adding Spain to the quarantine list after a "rapid increase" in #coronavirus cases.#KayBurley
Following up on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, she added that: “What we said throughout the time when we’ve put in place the policy on the travel corridors, the air bridges, is that we would need to keep those under review, that we would need to monitor the rates in other countries.”
“That is exactly what we’ve done in Spain, so we are enacting the policy that we committed to doing.”
“The rate was going up very rapidly in Spain and we had to take very rapid, decisive action.”
“If we hadn’t taken that decisive action, I imagine you would be asking me ‘Why are there delays, why haven’t we taken robust action?'”
“We have taken decisive action.”
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If you arrive in the UK from Spain including the Canary and Balearic Islands, on or after 26 July 2020 you will need to self-isolate for 14 days.
— Dept for Transport (@transportgovuk) July 25, 2020
Public Health England (PHE) is confirmed to be closely and continuously monitoring travel situations globally, and travellers are advised to continue checking this updated advice regularly.
All current and latest travel advice can be found via The Foreign & Commonwealth Office website here.
For further information and guidance amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, do refer to official sources via gov.uk/coronavirus.
#StaySafeSaveLives
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95% of Mancs apparently want the city to be ‘cashless’, new study reveals
Emily Sergeant
An eye-opening new study has found that only 5% of Mancs still use cash as their preferred method of payment nowadays.
It comes as no surprise that cash is less of a ‘king’ nowadays than it used to be, but now a new report by global financial technology company SumUp has suggests that only 5% of people in Manchester prefer to pay with cash, while 59% choose debit and credit cards, so that leaves one question… is Manchester on its way to becoming a cashless city?
To discover how payment preferences are evolving, SumUp conducted a nationwide survey to gather insights from UK consumers about their payment habits.
The company was particularly intrigued to not only discover payment methods people prefer, but what their concerns around certain payment methods, alongside how they feel about businesses that don’t accept digital payments.
95% of Mancs apparently want the city to be ‘cashless’ / Credit: Mylo Kaye (via Unsplash) | Pexels
Firstly, before we go any further, it’s important to note that almost two thirds (63%) of Manchester residents said they have changed the way they make payments over the past year.
Unsurprisingly, debit and credit cards remain the top choice for the majority of Mancs, with over half (59%) saying it was their preferred method of payment, followed by mobile payment methods such as Apple Pay and Google Pay at 24% – which is likely thanks to their ease of use and the ability to have multiple cards on one device.
While a third (31%) of Mancs said that they ‘don’t mind’ cash and still opt to carry it for situations where digital payments aren’t an option, a growing number of people in the city are feel that digital payments are more favourable, with 25% thinking that businesses should adapt to modern payment methods and whilst 28% finding it ‘inconvenient’ when a business doesn’t accept digital payments.
A further 11% of people even say that cash-only businesses wouldn’t be an option they’d consider, and would actually avoid them wherever possible.
Only 5% use cash as their preferred method of payment / Credit: Rawpixel
When it comes to concerns around digital payment methods, where do Mancs stand then? Well, the survey found that a third (33%) of people are worried about their reliance on technology, especially being unable to pay if their phone dies, for example, while an additional 32% of people are concerned about security risks such as hacking, fraud, or stolen card details.
Among other things, 26% of survey respondents also said they worry about the privacy aspect of digital banking and the tracking your data.
“While debit and credit cards continue to dominate as the preferred payment method, it’s clear that cash is slowly declining in use, particularly among younger generations,” Corin Camenisch, who is the Marketing & Growth Lead at SumUp, commented on the report.
“Looking ahead, we can anticipate a rise in innovative payment methods like digital wallets, especially as younger consumers increasingly embrace the convenience and flexibility they offer.”
Featured Image – Pavel Danilyuk (via Pexels)
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Met Office predicts UK is set for ‘hotter than average’ summer
Emily Sergeant
The Met Office is predicting that the UK is set for a ‘hotter than average’ summer this year.
Fresh off-the-back of the news that 2025 is already the hottest spring on record, with a recorded 630 hours of sunshine from 1 March until 27 May, beating out the previous sunniest spring in 2020 by just four hours, the Met Office is now predicting that the UK is on the verge of a summer that’s ‘hotter than usual’.
According to its three-month outlook, the Met Office has predicted that it’s 2.3 times more-likely than ‘normal’ that it will be hot in the UK between 1 June and 31 August.
The average temperatures during those months are set to range from 10-17°C.
🌡️ ☀️ The UK has recorded its warmest and sunniest spring on record, according to provisional Met Office statistics.
Spring 2025 is now the 4th sunniest season overall for the UK, with only 3 summers sunnier since 1910.
Details in release below, or read this short thread 👇🧵
After it was revealed that this has also been the UK’s driest spring in more than a century, meteorologists are warning Brits that there could heatwave conditions could be reached at various times throughout the summer.
The release of the long-range forecast – which gives an indication of possible temperatures, rainfall, and wind speed over a period as a whole – comes after temperatures soared to 8°C (46F) above the average for this time of year this Saturday just gone (31 May).
It is important to note, however, that the Met Office thinks these predicted temperatures are similar to those in recent years, and it does not guarantee ‘prolonged’ hot weather.
The Met Office is predicting that the UK is set for ‘hotter than average’ summer this year / Credit: Mylo Kaye (via Unsplash)
The Met Office said in a statement: “While the current three-month outlook shows an increased chance of a hot summer, the temperature signals for this summer are similar to those for recent years and consistent with our warming climate.
“The increased chance of hotter than average temperatures is not a guarantee of prolonged hot weather or heatwaves, but it does mean that heatwave conditions could be reached at times.
“However, it’s important to bear in mind that an increased chance of hot conditions could also reflect a mix of hot and cool days, warm nights, or less extreme levels of warmth rather than continual heatwave conditions specifically.”
The Manc -
27th July 2020 
