Labour has a plan “to ease the 14-day quarantine measures” (Labour List, 8/6/2020). The proposal for “a testing procedure for travellers, with results provided within 48 hours” is a good one – as long as people are quarantined for that 48 hours in a specified space. But if the government rejects that proposal, Labour must on no account sympathise with the poor travellers holed up for 14 days. Because they won’t be. According to The Guardian, they will be able to go food shopping, change accommodation and use public transport from airports. Only one-fifth of them will be spot-checked to see if they are staying at their notified address. Enforcement of the quarantine will be limited (The Guardian, 1/6/2020).

So where’s the quarantine? There is no quarantine worth the name. Instead, there is a smoke-and-mirrors operation to fool us that there is. That’s because the travellers are likely to be business. Or tourists, which is the same thing.  And opening up business is important. More important than health.