EVERYONE entering Scotland will have to be tested and quarantined, especially those with a legal reason to enter Scotland – such as Scots returning from visiting friends, relatives or business associates in England.
That means adding road blocks with diversions to managed quarantine facilities all along the border.
Quarantine For Scotland. M6 J45 B7076 Traffic Management. A74(M) Border Road-block. Quarantine at Gretna facilities.
For example, the A74(M) would have to be closed at Gretna, most likely northbound traffic road-blocked on the border itself, asking Cumbria police to divert traffic northbound for Scotland to turn off the M6 at the last junction (45) and those wishing to quarantine take the B7076 for quarantine facilities just across the border in Scotland, in the area in and around the Greens at Gretna Hotel and the Gretna Gateway South Car Park – with additional caravan camp type facilities added to cope with the expected number of people to be quarantined.
Quarantine for Scotland would mean closing all the road border-crossings into Scotland; only southbound traffic on the A74(M) and the A1 could be safely left “open”. So the only roadways into Scotland from England would be through the quarantine zones – one at Gretna, as illustrated above, where extensions to the quarantine zone would be constrained by the border and the town of Gretna and the other, most likely, on the A1 at Lamberton, where there are fewer constraints on development so the quarantine zone could be extended in any of the directions indicated in the plan.
Quarantine for Scotland. A1 Road-block Traffic Management. Quarantine at Lamberton facilities.
There would probably have to be enabling legislation through the Scottish Parliament to allow the Scottish government to make compulsory purchases of buildings and land in those “quarantine zone” areas required to be used for managed quarantine facilities.
All that work should have been done years ago as part of pandemic preparedness, but of course wasn’t done because the United Kingdom is totally clueless.
Quarantine for Scotland would mean that all supply lorries from England to Scotland would have to stop in a quarantine zone, either –
- to swap drivers (after disinfecting the cab) or
- to hitch the trailer to a Scottish cab or
- to deliver to a depot in the quarantine zone or
- to return to England or
- to continue on to Scotland with the same driver after 14-days in quarantine.
Realistically, this would increase the costs of delivering to Scotland from England.
Trains
Quarantine for Scotland would mean that all northbound cross-border passenger train services will be suspended.
Whilst it is simplest just to ban all cross-border passenger trains, it is possible, if complicated, to allow southbound passenger services to continue.
Southbound trains could continue service with the understanding that drivers, guards and passengers who cross into England will be expected when returning to Scotland to serve quarantine before being free to enter Scotland again.
Northbound empty (no passengers, just driver and guard only) passenger trains and all freight trains can be permitted to cross the border into Scotland in which case the northbound drivers and guards of all trains (passenger and freight) should get out (and be replaced by Scotland-based drivers and guards) at the first stop in Scotland and the cross-border drivers and guards should normally return to England on the next southbound train, most usefully as drivers and guards of that southbound train, replacing the Scotland-based drivers and guards who could get out at the last stop in Scotland before the train crosses the border into England; alternatively, northbound cross-border drivers and guards who do not intend to return to England but who wish to enter Scotland freely should serve 14-days quarantine preferably in a facility local to that first-stop station in Scotland provided by their employer.
Northbound west-coast railway-line train passengers can take the train as far as Carlisle then get a bus or taxi to the Quarantine at Gretna facilities. After serving 14-days quarantine, they can take a bus or a taxi to Annan railway station.
Northbound east-coast railway-line train passengers can take the train as far as Berwick-upon-Tweed then get a bus or a taxi to the Quarantine at Lamberton facilities. After serving 14-days quarantine, they can take a bus or a taxi to Dunbar railway station.
Trunk roads and council roads
Quarantine for Scotland would mean that the Scottish Government would have the responsibility to order the closure of only the 4 or 5 trunk roads which cross the border with England (see above map) and the local roads through the Quarantine Zones.
Other local roads should be blocked at the border crossings by the 2 councils on the border – the Dumfries and Galloway Council and the Scottish Borders Council.
Quarantine for Scotland would leave the power with the councils to decide if they want to block their own local roads at the border and to decide what help to ask from the Scottish government to close the border crossings successfully. Although how hard can it be to place a few skips to block the road at the border with England?
Of course if unauthorised persons were trying to clear the roads that the councils had ordered closed then the councils could ask for help from the police and the Scottish government to keep their roads blocked at the border.
B roads are the responsibility of the councils so if the 2 border councils don’t want to close their own B and local roads at the border with England then fair enough. In which case it may fall to other councils to close their local roads – likes of the various Ayrshire and Lothian councils – at the border between their councils and the border councils if they choose to do so.
If the border councils refuse to close their roads at the border with England then Quarantine for Scotland could be easily circumvented by travellers from England crossing using council roads.
However, that wouldn’t stop the police from arresting those who had travelled from England by circumventing the quarantine facilities – if the police could catch them, if not at the border then somewhere else in Scotland.
So Quarantine for Scotland, even if it closed the trunk roads, the railways, the airports, the sea ports for passenger entry to Scotland, would only be 100% effective if the border councils agreed with the idea of stopping getting re-infected from England and helped by closing their own roads at the border too.
The Scottish government could attempt to persuade border councils to close their roads at the border – plenty of carrots but no stick. Also the use of public health messages on TV could explain how the lack of co-operation from border councils on closing the border was a bad idea and voters should contact their councillor to ask them to get the council to close the roads at the border, etc.
Please don’t become a stranger. 😥
I wish to repudiate Jacob Rees-Mogg claims Nicola Sturgeon wants to ‘build a wall like Trump’ in Scottish border row.
The more appropriate comparison is Sturgeon with El Chapo, the Mexican Drug Lord, whose crimes include smuggling drugs across the USA-Mexico border and 1,000 murders and likewise Nicola “La Chapo” Sturgeon is responsible for the crimes of quarantine busting across the England – Scotland border, spreading the COVID-19 infection from England to Scotland, thereby causing 2,480+ deaths.
- El Chapo trafficked drugs over the border and killed people.
- Sturgeon traffics infected people over the border and kills people.
Sturgeon has built no wall, guarded no border, imposed no quarantine on travellers from England. Comparing her with Trump is perverse.
Margaret Ferrier SNP MP
BBC: Margaret Ferrier’s covid breach is embarrassing for Nicola Sturgeon
The intelligence bar for travelling by train or any public transport is not set particularly high. Travel companies have gone to great lengths to make travelling possible for those who have difficulty following rules. More rules doesn’t deal with the Ferrier-class of great ape.
Making an example of Margaret Ferrier alone will not stop other infected covidiots crossing the open Scotland-England border to travel far and wide to spread the virus.
Only closing the border will work and the responsibility for not doing so rests with the head of state, the Queen and her ministers such as First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.
Only making an example of the Queen and/or her failing ministers and changing the policy to close the border and impose Quarantine for Scotland as described here will work to stop the spread of infection into Scotland.
WHY THE SNP OPPOSED QUARANTINE FOR SCOTLAND
Scotland has the power to quarantine entrants but the SNP refused to impose compulsory quarantine in managed facilities for all legal entrants to Scotland, to suit SNP MPs returning to constituencies every weekend, so 1000s of Scots died.
Peter Dow's preview blog 
Scottish Border protest: What those there have to say
Exclusive by Xander Richards @xanderescribe
One protester urged people to ‘spend money down in England, support local businesses, and we’ll do the same in Scotland’
PEOPLE present at the protest on Scotland’s Border with England on Saturday have spoken to The National and vehemently denied they are “racist”.
One of the protesters, Jane, who asked her surname be omitted, said their message had nothing to do with independence, but was purely about coronavirus transmission.
“We were very worried that the infection rate would soar in Scotland with the influx of holiday makers and camper vans coming from England, which has a really high infection rate, and we are doing so well here,” she said.
“I was scared it would waste all of our hard work, and all the sacrifices all the people have made over the last few months would be wiped away.”
Tweeting about the protest, Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf said: “If you are a racist you are no friend of mine and no part of the movement I belong to.”
Jane said those there were mortified at the idea of being called racist, adding: “I think it is so, so wrong to bring that in. We have been hit from all sides.
“To put the record straight we had two English people, and one Polish lady in our group. None of us has any racist tendencies and we all have friends in various parts of England.
“I feel for them down south with their plight.”
Les Johnstone, a half-Scottish, half-English lorry driver who has lived in London since he was 16, said he had stopped on the Border for a break when he saw the “little protest about Covid”.
He said: “I get why people are worried why this would be harmful to the [independence] movement, but it was very well behaved. There was no shouting at passing cars or any angry banners or anything like that.”
Asked about a video circulating on social media, in which a man in a fake hazmat suit and tartan facemask can be heard to say “Stay the f**k out of Scotland” to the camera, Johnstone said: “I know that one video and that is obviously the thing that’s going to go viral rather than the peaceful stuff.
“To be honest the word f**k, it’s just how people talk, and just because he has used that word it doesn’t mean he was being nasty.
“Saying he was racist, far from it. There was none of that. I have seen xenophobia up close, my wife is of Indian heritage and I have seen it, how her mum was abused when she first came to the UK.
“This was nowhere near racism. It was just about the fact there is a border and that border needs to be maintained if we are going to maintain a strong position fighting Covid. They were making a very serious point about how serious it is bringing this over the Border.”
Jane added: “As far as we were concerned, it was purely about health and not to lose the progress we all had made. It’s not political. As for our indy movement, we will be up and running with that after we best this virus, that’s what’s important at the moment.”
Ian Mcneil, who apparently arranged the protest, told The National: “Scotland is still in lockdown and the Scottish Government is doing well in its attempts to eliminate Covid-19.
“Our demo was to highlight the fact that campsites and caravan parks will not be fully opened until July 15, therefore there are no toilet facilities.
“For some weeks now the locals up north, including one SNP leader, have tried to discourage tourists from holidaying here until further notice … that’s what the demo was all about.”
Mcneil posted a 10-minute video of the protest to his Facebook, with the message: “Some MPs, comedians and certain Yes groups should watch this and take note of the content before judging people with knee-jerk statements and condemnation.
“The message was clear … Covid infection rates south of our Border are far higher. We were there to discourage tourists from holidaying in Scotland until such times as the virus is eliminated throughout the UK. Have a staycation in your own nation. One final point, this was NOT an independence or constitutional issue.”
In the first minute of the video he can be heard to say: “It’s a simple little message, that people wanting to go on holiday now but who are not going abroad, they should maybe pick up a wee holiday in Scotland or a wee holiday in England.
“So anybody down in England why not have a wee holiday in the Lake District, Blackpool, spend money down there, support local businesses, and we’ll do the same in Scotland.”
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Police in the Borders were called to a layby area near the A1 at Lamberton at around 2.25pm on Saturday following a report of protest activity at the side of the carriageway.
“Officers attended and suitable advice was given to those in attendance.”
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