Just Posted On A Site I'm On, Long But Worth A Read, Very Worrying

[Bobbisox1]

A friend of mine returned to U.K. last Wednesday after 3 months lockdown in Spain. Here are her observations on her experience leaving Alicante and arriving at Manchester Airport Terminal One:
I wasn’t planning to write this up but I thought it might be interesting to some people to see another element of how shockingly bad the UK’s response is to our current coronavirus situation.
We flew from Spain back to UK 2 days ago as passengers.
Our experience in Alicante airport:
- No crowds either outside the airport or inside
- Free hand sanitiser gel stations in every area of check in, security, inside the terminal, toilets
- The toilets at the terminal were attended to and so clean you could eat your dinner off them (not that you’d want to) with sensor technology so you didn’t have to touch any taps, hand dryers etc
- When queuing to board the aircraft there were lines on the floor for people to follow / social distance on and guardia civil there to enforce that
- Absolutely every member of airport staff we came into contact with wore a mask and never asked us to remove ours
- All passengers at this time followed the rules perfectly
- As safe and as pleasant airport experience as you can have during these times
Landing in the UK
- As early as the runway we spotted a huge crowd packed close together (like you would stand at the front barrier at a gig) at the place where people go plane spotting (crowd of over 100 people, no social distancing, next to no masks in sight)
- On arrival we were told to fill out an online form (online so that this can be a contactless process you would think) to declare that we would be self isolating for 14 days and you have to give your address, number, flight details
- We get into the queue for ‘health screening’ and most of the passenger’s attitudes immediately seem to change without it being spelled out for them aka none of the other passengers bar a few of us were even attempting to social distance from each other because there’s now no lines on the floor to follow maybe?
-

[Bobbisox1]

tashi is so right about you!
you don't faze me though

[Bobbisox1]

you lady, are full of bravado I have noticed, mostly on a weekend when there's n Ed around which makes you a bit of a coward, now if you don't mind!!!!

[bednobs]

i don't really get how this is the UKs fault (although i guess there's more to come?) as the people who got on the plane are exactly the same people that got off the plane - if they followed SD at the spanish end, it's not "the UKs" fault they turned into numpties in the air ;)

[Bobbisox1]

by the way, this is NOT a friend of mine, I copied it from a site I am on to let people see what happened to this person

[Bobbisox1]

there is more to follow but quite frankly, is it really worth it?

[bednobs]

i dunno - is it?

[Bobbisox1]

not right now it isn't :)

[TonyV]

Seems my answer wasn't approved of by Ed and has been removed.

[Bobbisox1]

I don't think Ed works at weekends Tony , someone on the Lanzarote site said 'my friend' , i've copied and pasted it as I think it's quite worrying but not worth the hassle especially over the weekend

[KARL]

I know people who travelled through the UK with an overnight stay in the second half of May, when lockdown was in full force, en-route to another country. Their impression of Heathrow was actually worse than the OP description. The staff were often seen grouping together and distancing was neither being observed or encouraged to any significant degree. They described having met staff three abreast pushing them hard up against a wall and still well under 2m separation. Sanitisers were a very rare sight (only spotted at toilets). At the "Smoking Point" being used by staff there were people arriving and forming tight knots embracing and one example of a kiss. Outside the airport there was occasionally some evidence of distancing being encouraged but not very seriously and masks were a distinct rarity. On arrival at their destination country airport sanitisers were almost as common as the rubbish in the streets in London and the various distancing moves and facilities were very evident. That country had already arrived at single figure new case count monthly. Go compare.

[Bobbisox1]

thank you Karl, the voice of reason

[TonyV]

I appreciate that bobbi.

[ubasses]

Very similar, had video call with friends in Cyprus last night, one of their neighbours managed to book a repatriation flight back home. Got to Manchester to be told there wasn't a flight, but they could go to Gatwick, no help given at all. They managed to hire a car and drove all the way. Their version of Gatwick aiport matched the 2 above.
Arrival in Cyprus they were met by officials all had their temperatures taken, once through passport control they were individually taken to offices to prove they had the right to be there, temperature taken again then to baggage reclaim. After that it was on to coaches to a hotel for 7 days. Not allowed to leave the room, all food left outside on a trolly. Temperature taken regularly, if still clear after the 7 days they were permitted to leave. No wonder they only have 1000 cases and less than 20 deaths. Social distancing maintained at all times.