That is true and a necessary consequence of obtaining greater independence

Big waste of time if you ask me, but the people voted to keep the Romanians out so you’ve got to accept it

You're the worst leeches of the EU, nothing new here

some people...

It should be noted that these quarantines were issued retroactively out of concern over the new mutated strain from the UK. These people entered Switzerland when they could do so without mandatory quarantines, showed a negative test upon entry, and were then, days later, told that they now have to go into a quarantine which lasts the rest of their holidays anyway. Of course it's selfish and irresponsible by them to break the quarantine and just disappear over night - but I can somehow understand it. Those were not the rules they signed up for when they started their vacation in Switzerland, the retroactive quarantine was a "breach of contract" if you will...

I'm honestly torn on that one. I can understand the public health interest of the Swiss government, but on a personal level, I can also understand why these Brits felt betrayed and bent over by this treatment.

you kidding, right? they chose to travel abroad during a pandemic in the first place, when the overwhelming majority of people make significant restrictions to their daily lives in order to prevent the spread as best as possible. yes, it was legal. yes it sucks that they would have been quarantined for the rest of their vacation, but it was not anyone's "fault" that a new strain was discovered just when they were preparing to hit the slopes. so who exactly are you suggesting they were 'betrayed and bent over' by?

i'm not torn on this at all, they are selfish assholes. just disappearing to france or back home in the middle of the night, without any notice (for contact tracing for example), is simply shitty, selfish, and reckless behaviour. we're still talking about a deadly disease here.

Yes, they travelled abroad during a pandemic, but the blame for them being able to do so goes to the corrupt governments of the countries letting them in to satisfy the greed of their local tourism industry. Retroactively changing the rules is just a huge huge HUGE no-go in my opinion. And yet again, I can understand why the Swiss government did that; and I actually agree with these retroactive quarantines. It's just that I, at the same time, understand the Brits.

In my opinion, the blame falls on the Swiss authorities who failed to enforce the quarantine. Yes, it's shitty that these Brits would have to be subjected to a breach of contract situation, and yes, the overarching public health concern trumps their personal self-interest and justifies these drastic steps. But it was foolish by the Swiss authorities to pursue such a policy and expect the affected Brits to just play along. They should have been brought to a controlled environment for their quanratine, say a hotel with security where they cant just pick up their stuff and leave.

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Dec 31 2020 05:41pm

it's not 'retroactively changing the rules', not a 'breach of contract' though, please stop it with the kitchen sink lawyering. if they had done it without the new strain, fair enough, you'd have a point, but that was a completely new development for which there weren't any rules in place. when you're on vacation and police tries to arrest you for a crime for example, you can't just go "i only agreed to having a good time when i came to this country, i'm here on my holiday. arresting me would be a breach of contract. tough luck, bitches". there was no "betrayal" or "bending over" involved. those people should have known that traveling during a fucking pandemic has its risks and inconveniences.

them being able to travel abroad in the first place was stupid imo, but again, not illegal. i'm pretty sure swiss tourism officials also weren't too happy about the measure, but what it comes down to is that they were implemented as an attempt to prevent the uncontrolled spread of a potentially dangerous new strain. the implementation, the execution, the severity of those measures... all that leaves plenty of room for discussion and criticism. generally speaking, nothing that happened in europe as response to covid-19 has been 'perfect', especially with the benefit of hindsight. that does, however, not take away responsibility or blame from those asshats. was it a shitty situation for them? sure, but that does not justify their actions. trying to blame the swiss government while expressing sympathy for those selfish fucks is ridiculous imo.

What I consider ridiculous is governments failing their public health measures because they seemingly have no clue about basic human psychology. Even pre-covid, a very significant share of humans were selfish asshats. Good governance has to anticipate this.

that's just a silly blanket statement that requires proof and additionally is irrelevant to my point. even IF that hastily issued measure to prevent the uncontrolled spread of a dangerous new strain was not implemented in a fool- and scumbag-proof way, that STILL doesn't absolve those people from blame and responsibility.
it can be bad "governance" AND shitty, selfish behaviour. you can point out the former without taking the side of and even having sympathy for the latter. they still have agency, you know? you're now arguing in favour of an authoritarian nanny state, in which government action makes a violation of its policies impossible by force. amazing.

you also shifted perspective somewhat. when originally you argued on behalf of the brits who simply disappeared from quarantine, emphasising how shitty their situation was, and claiming it was a "breach of contract", you are now arguing from a perspective of a society having to deal with the potential fallout from their actions.

anyway, no sympathy for those fucks from me. they weren't betrayed. they are selfish scumbags.