Amber Anarchy

A mixed bag of topics for me this week. 

So let’s start with the UK Government and their traffic light travel system. The main problem with it is there doesn’t seem to be a clear and concise message across the board. 

On Monday the Health Secretary Matt Hancock said, “We don’t want to stop travel altogether and the reason that we have the amber list is there will be reasons why people feel they need to travel, either to visit family or indeed to visit friends.”

On Wednesday Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “I think it’s very important for people to grasp what an amber list country is: it is not somewhere where you should be going on holiday, let me be very clear about that.

“And if people do go to an amber list country, they absolutely have to for some pressing family or urgent business reason, then please bear in mind that you will have to self-isolate, you’ll have to take tests and do your passenger locator form and all the rest of it.”

However it is clear that Brits aren’t adhering to Government advice. Cirium, a global aviation data firm, reportedly said the number of scheduled flights and passengers to Italy, Greece and Spain was set to increase by up to 200 per cent in the coming days.

This is said to represent a doubling to Spain, from 38 flights on Wednesday to 80 today, with capacity for up to 16,000 travellers.

According to the Home Secretary Priti Patel, those who decide to go to an amber country could find Police Officers knocking on their door to check they are quarantining on their return. That’s interesting because if you call the Police to ask them to investigate a crime how many times do they actually turn up? 

The low cost airlines are playing the game too by offering cheaper flights to amber countries. Ryanair for example were offering flights for just £5 on some routes. 

With all this going on surely it would have been easier to have Red countries and Green countries only? Then there’s nobody trying to get around the problem. Police officers wouldn’t have to waste their time checking on people and airlines would only fly to the places they could fly to. If you wanted to fly to a red country for family reasons then special dispensation could be applied for. 

I think they went red, amber and green so they could try and cope with the volume of people travelling but it’s clearly not working. 

Another advantage to travel will be the vaccine as most EU countries are going to allow travellers who’ve had both doses to travel without a PCR test and not to have to quarantine on their return. I went for my first jab last weekend. After the nightmare of trying to get an appointment I wasn’t looking forward to going last Sunday. The reality was far different to what I was expecting. I arrived for a 10am appointment at 09.45 and was guided into the sports centre at Germans Escalas. After checking all my information, I was quickly directed to the doctor and after the jab, directed to a desk where my next appointment was organised for June 6th. I was out of the building at 09.55. I couldn’t fault the whole process. 

Congratulations to Real Mallorca who managed to get themselves promoted back to La Liga without playing a game last Tuesday. It’s great to write a bit of good news for the island. After the results from last weekend, Almeria had to win their game at Cartagena or Mallorca would be promoted. I was in Palma at my sons training, when with 10 minutes to go Cartagena scored to lead 3-2. At that point I drove to the ground which was about 10 minutes away to see if there was many people there. I arrived on the full time whistle and there was flares and fireworks going off as the fans were wildly celebrating. Cars were hooting their horns going by and then the majority of fans left to go and celebrate in the now traditional Plaza de las Tortugas in Palma. They now have time to put together a squad that can consolidate its position in La Liga next season and not become a yo-yo club. Their final home game is on Monday at 21.00 against Zaragoza. Season ticket holders can apply for tickets, like last Sunday with a capacity of 4,086. I managed to get one last week so let’s hope I’m lucky again. Last weekend of the tickets handed out, 544 people didn’t show up. That’s terrible, especially as there were so many who wanted to go and couldn’t. I hope the club doesn’t include any of them in this weeks draw. 

This time next week Ayesha and I will be well into the second day of the Radiothon and hopefully raising lots of money for our charities. There’s still time to help us, by sponsoring an hour, bidding in the auction, buying raffle tickets, food donations or donate for a song. It’s not going to be easy to beat last years total but we will give it our best shot and we can only do it with your help. We have an amazing list of over 50 raffle prizes and the auction list is one of the best we’ve ever put together. 

We want to say a massive thank you to everybody that has helped so far. Make sure you tune in or pop into the Wave House to see us. We start at 07.30 on Friday May 28th and go through to Saturday May 29th at 19.00. 

Take care everyone and enjoy your Weekend! 

Richie presents the Radio One Mallorca Breakfast show Monday to Friday 07.30-11.00am on 93.8fm in Mallorca and 102fm in Calvià, online at www.radioonemallorca.com on mobile through their free App for IPhone & Android, The Tunein Radio App, iTunes, the Spanish TDT TV service and all smart speakers. If you can’t hear him on the radio then you’ll find him working at Pirates Adventure the islands number one night out and every now and again he may make an understudy appearance! 

Follow him on Twitter @DadTaxi1 & Instagram @dad.taxi or feel free to email him at rprior@globobalear.com