The entire travel industry cannot be sustained on a diet of Malta and Ibiza alone

With infection levels in many European countries far below that of the UK, why are ministers still telling people not to holiday in amber countries? asks Cathy Adams

‘Airlines and holiday firms are watching the summer drip away’ (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Patience is a virtue, they say.

Perhaps it’s best that “they” had never met the phalanx of grumpy travel journalists and millions of hopeful-to-holiday Britons who were waiting for the promised update to the green list on Thursday evening.

As the clock ticked past 7pm – far beyond acceptable wine time, and pointless because Northern Ireland and Scotland had already broken the news – I was feeling distinctly unvirtuous. Jobs, travelling to see family and, yes, holidays, depended on this announcement; and ministers had thoughtlessly left us waiting all day without so much as a sniff as to when we might hear. Was Grant Shapps finishing his dinner first? I would have quite liked to eat mine, too.