Updated advice on coronavirus from Hastings MP is needed now

Almost two months after the initial lock down and our MP, Sally Ann Hart, has eventually got round to delivering her Ggovernment’s latest coronavirus advice sheet.

The fact that this arrived only days before the announcement that the advice it contained has changed seems to follow the now familiar pattern of locking the stable door after the horse has bolted and arriving at the platform once the train has already left the station.

Ms Hart has also prioritised what she sees as the grave danger presented by a handful of illegal immigrants landing at Petts Level (because they might possibly have Covid-19) despite the fact that her government has already allowed tens of thousand of potential coronavirus carriers through our ports and airports at the height of the epidemic.

This is compounded by a current policy of imposing quarantine restrictions on anyone arriving in the UK from everywhere except France – regardless of their original country of departure – which effectively allows Italians or Spaniards, for example, to avoid quarantine restrictions by travelling to France and then catching the Eurostar to Dover, rather than flying directly from Milan or Madrid.

It would also be extremely helpful (now that the government’s coronavirus advice sheet has been superseded by new advice) if Ms Hart would care to inform those of her constituents who don’t have cars how they can travel to work in Eastbourne, Brighton or London without using public transport? Or how their safety can be assured without their employers being given clear guidelines on ‘safe working practice’ and provided with the necessary help to ensure that these practises can be implemented.

I appreciate that the current crisis would be a serious challenge to any government, but it seems that hardly a day goes by without the Johnson government’s level of incompetence ratcheting up another notch and it can therefore come as little surprise to anyone that the UK is not only on course for the highest death toll in Europe but also the deepest recession in living memory.