El Presidente

Unless I'm missing something, our government is making a cock-up of things yet again.

Not only have they taken an inordinately long time to get this inbound traveller plan up and running, but of the countries from which travellers have to isolate in an airport hotel (at least I presume it will be an airport hotel), only one of those countries is listed in the top 10 countries for Covid cases (with populations of >20m), and therefore those at greatest risk of bringing in mutations. That country is Brazil.

Not only that, but it's quite easy to fly from Brazil to the UK via Frankfurt, evading any need to isolate by simply stating on the required form that you're flying from Germany.

Simply closing the borders to all travellers, as many countries have done very effectively, would eliminate any chance of working the system and, if there's a way of working the system, people have already demonstrated that they will do just that.

Naturally, closing the borders would mean Boris annoying the Conservative Party's donors in the airline industry - so we can pretty well guarantee that won't happen.

I said it yesterday, but I'll say it again - the more I hear about the calamity of cockups this government is responsible for, the more I'm convinced the vaccine purchase was nothing more than a fluke. They're genetically and ideologically incapable of making a decision based on reason and have to be forced into it by circumstances.

I was making a fish pie yesterday using Emmental cheese for the topping. The brand is President - which made me think that an apt nickname for Boris is 'El Presidente', redolent of a corrupt dictator of a failed South American state. It has the ring of truth to it.