Guernsey Press

Covid-free reality is better than fantasy

BACK when all this began, few could have imagined the months that would pass by with the world turned upside down by the coronavirus.

Published

Yet here we are looking at October as the earliest point before the next stage in Guernsey’s slow return to normality.

It is a huge period of time, a massive blow to hospitality and a severe curtailment of the personal freedoms of islanders.

It is entirely understandable that frustrations are building and, for some, the restrictions have become intolerable. We all want our pre-Covid lives back.

Wishing it so, however, cannot make it so. The world has fundamentally changed and it will take months, if not years, to return to normal.

To pretend that all we need to do is open the borders and all will be well is a fantasy.

For it is not just governments that are enforcing post-lockdown rules, it is people.

The UK government wants workers back in offices and children back in school. Yet they are having to fight hard to make it happen.

People look at the masks they must wear, the social distancing and the friends and family who are still getting sick and remain cautious. Hence the empty shopping malls, the quiet cafes, the deserted tube platforms.

In our fantasy island, Phase 6 should start tomorrow. Or at least Phase 5c, with testing on arrival and after seven days. That would solve all our problems.

Except it won’t. There will be no flood of tourists, either in September or October. Nor will investment bankers be emerging blinking into the light from their Surrey homes eager to pop over and talk investments.

Even those who are happy to take the risk will find it difficult. Without passengers, Aurigny, Blue Islands and Condor cannot run full services.

A weekly boat or a daily flight from Gatwick or Manchester is not going to revive our hotels. Summer has gone and the schools are coming back. No restaurant staff will be rehired this side of Christmas.

It is better to focus on what we have got than indulge in fantasies.