It’s tempting to bend quarantine rules to take a foreign holiday, but now is not the time to be selfish

The ‘Dublin Dodge’ means you can book your return flight to the Irish capital with an immediate connection back to the UK from there and avoid the imposition of self-isolation. But this isn’t a time to think only of your own whims, writes Lucie McInerney

Transfer window: passengers changing planes at Heathrow will be exempt from the quarantine policy (Heathrow Airport)

We all knew it was coming for a long time. So when Priti Patel, thus far the only woman to front a No 10 daily press briefing, appeared at the podium and announced the implementation of a 14-day quarantine period for anyone coming into the UK as of 8 June, no one was surprised. Disappointed, perplexed and confused this wasn’t enacted months ago, many of us found ourselves screaming at the television: “Why didn’t you do this in March?!”

Now, without any mention of when it might end or the terms under which the government would seek to lift these measures, we are left with the sensation that we’ll never be able to get off this island.

The end of holidays – abroad at least – and having no idea when they might happen again means we are left without something to look forward to; a high point to work towards that makes the low points bearable. Never more so have we all been in need of something to hope for.

The British government is happy to waive the quarantine period for people travelling to the UK from Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man – thanks to the Common Travel Area. And so, as my esteemed colleague and fount of all travel knowledge Simon Calder points out there exists the “Dublin Dodge”: just book your return flight to Dublin with an immediate connection back to the UK from there and you can avoid the imposition of self-isolation. But really, how many of us will actually do this?

Of course, this quarantine doesn’t just affect holidaymakers. Plenty of us, including yours truly, live in a different country from our family. So given my family are just a short hop over the Irish Sea safely ensconced within the Common Travel Area, I thought, hurrah! The end is in sight, soon I’ll be able to see my parents and maybe even make it over to see my godson for his first birthday… but no. The Irish government is having none of it. Its own quarantine rules demand the same period of self-isolation of all travellers arriving from anywhere in the world – with the exception of Northern Ireland.

Watching the Irish government announce a much clearer road map out of lockdown 10 days before Boris Johnson’s confusing and ill-judged address to the nation made me long for my home nation. There are things I do not miss about Dublin (the price of booze is exorbitant and the public transport infrastructure leaves a lot to be desired) but Varadkar and his team’s handling of the coronavirus crisis (though not perfect, as these things rarely can be – well, actually Jacinda Ardern was pretty good at it) has piqued my sense of longing for home.

I could just book my own “Belfast Dodge” (no, I couldn’t find an alliterative alternative to “dodge” here sadly) flying from London to Belfast and then make my way to the homestead in Dublin from there without a problem. But there’s no way I would.

Now is not the time to behave in such a shamelessly self-serving way. This isn’t a time to think just of oneself and one’s whims; we need to prioritise all those nurses, care workers, doctors, porters and more keeping health and care sectors going, as well as those of us who are in high-risk categories and have had to stick to much more rigid lockdowns than the rest. We can’t have one rule for ourselves and another for everyone else – like driving 260 miles to Durham with your sick wife and child when you should be self-isolating at your London home. I’m talking about you Dominic Cummings.

The government apparently held off on introducing lockdown as the prime minister fervently believed that the British people wouldn’t abide by the rules curbing their freedoms. But this belief was disproved as the public heartily took to lockdown and the other rules that curbed their freedom – while also simultaneously saving their lives. No one saw that coming. Britain’s pride in and fierce desire to protect the NHS was another factor in its commitment to lockdown.

This same pride in the National Health Service and desire to protect both it and the lives of others is what will undoubtedly prevent the vast majority of people from bothering with the faff of actually enacting the “Dublin Dodge” to get away on a break while this pandemic is still a real threat. And I’d imagine that anyone who does will be fairly roundly – and rightly – lambasted for such selfish behaviour.