Brits cannot even transit France now

I mean, it’s not actually going to change the case numbers in France but thanks to the tw**s that voted for Brexit, Brits can’t even transit France now :rage:

Feckin stupid, the ones travelling have been tested and negative. The near 200000 cases of people with a highly transmissible cold around each of the EU countries and UK make it just that the government’s must be seen to take some kind of action even though its pointless to placate the tribalism within each country, sense, reason and science data have flown out the window.

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Although I think Omicron is a more serious problem than the UK government currently acknowledges, and even most “responsible” governments seem to underestimate its impact I agree with @Corona’s comment - this is theatre, designed to be “seen to be doing something”.

Omicron can still be bad enough to need hospital treatment - and more often than 'flu does and it is is massively more transmissible so overall the risk is still present, even with vaccination.

The vaccine breakthrough is very evident with the shear numbers being infected. They may have reduced some of the symptoms for many early on but seem pretty useless with omicron. The delta variant multiplied in the lungs causing problems for the alveoli and hence the severe issues with breathing. Omicron is more in the upper airways so not causing so much of an issue to most.

Rather a strange statement, isn’t it? If they hold "French residency” then France is “their country of residence”. I guess whoever drafted it hasn’t read Catch 22.

This is surely no surprise… it’s part of the “Conditions de Déplacement entre Royaume Uni et la France”… 18th December…

without “compelling reasons”… folk can’t travel into/through France and out the other side… (except by Air within 24hrs)

  1. Can I transit through France to go to another country?

3. Puis-je transiter par la France pour me rendre dans un autre pays ?

Quelle que soit votre nationalité, vous êtes autorisé à transiter par la France, en zone internationale d’un aéroport (correspondance entre 2 vols) pour une durée maximum de 24h

“Whatever your nationality, you are authorized to transit through France, in the international zone of an airport (connection between 2 flights) for a maximum period of 24 hours”

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I suspect there’s something gone astray in the translation… wouldn’t be the first time… :wink:

I don’t see the confusion?
“Unless they hold French residency,” - this tells you that British citizens who hold French residency are considered a special case and what follows does not apply to them.
“British citizens are now considered 3rd country citizens and can no longer transit France by road to reach their country of residence in the EU” - this part of the sentence refers to British citizens who do not hold residency in France but who hold residency in another EU country. They cannot travel through France to get to eg Spain, Belgium, Netherlands etc. They will have to take a direct route that doesn’t involve transiting France.

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No, I don’t parse it that way at all. The “unless they hold French residency” is not a stand alone statement, it does not indicate that the rest of the statement does not apply. What the tweet says is people who are resident in another EU country and want to transit through France also need to be resident in France. It’s gibberish :joy:

In other words, “the unless they hold French residency” is irrelevant, because if they do hold French residency then their destination is… France. It’s nothing they couldn’t have sorted out with a bit Boolean algebra.

There seems to be confusion all round Stella. Tye Guardian article I read yesterday was talking about UK residents trying to get home from EU countries through France.

My real point was that the tweet was tautological.

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Confusion as Eurotunnel say Brits with homes in the EU are BANNED from travelling through France to get to them due to Macron’s Covid crackdown - but French Interior Ministry assures travellers the firm are WRONG ](Confusion over French Covid-19 travel rules affecting Britons | Daily Mail Online)

WHICH PAPER DO YOU TRUST,

I had to look up Tautological… although my guess was that it meant “confusing/rubbish”… and it seems I wasn’t far wrong… :rofl: :rofl:

EDIT: Personally I don’t trust any British newspapers… but that’s just me…

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None of them.

The FT still has the best ratio of facts to opinion, but an appropriate level of scepticism must be employed regardless.

Exclusive NOR?

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Well you can read it how you like I suppose, but parsing it grammatically, if you take “Unless they hold French residency” as a qualifying clause, it makes perfect sense. It is qualifying which British citizens the statement applies to., i.e. British citizens who do not hold French residency.

Where does it actually say anything about

?
That may be how you read it, but it is not what it says.

Let’s just narrow it down to the above. It’s redundant, because if they hold French residency, the are not resident in another EU country. :slightly_smiling_face:

Wouldn’t something like

“British passport holders* resident in an EU country other than France are no longer permitted to transit through France to reach their country of residence”

have been better?

"* because it doesn’t seem to apply to EU passport holders or British passport holders with dual EU nationality.

Can you imagine the outcry if you said that, though. “Macron hates Britain, France is punishing the Brits”. It would give out a completely different message, as if France was discriminating against British passport holders.
As it is, I take it that the intention was to diplomatically underline the fact that British citizens are, as a general rule, considered TCNs, which is not unreasonable since that is what they are. And consequently, the rules that apply to TCNs, apply to Brits. The only exception is Brits who reside in France, who are a special case and therefore an exception is made for them.

Do you not agree that there is a big difference between presenting the situation as not giving Brits in general any special privileges over and above other TCNs, which is easily justifiable, and making it look as if a new set of restrictions has been imposed on Brits, which would be hard to justify and would invite being seized upon and blown out of all proportion by the English media? But I suppose it was inevitable that it would be seized upon in any case, however diplomatic they tried to be.

I still don’t see the problem. The main statement is “British citizens are now considered 3rd country citizens and can no longer transit France by road to reach their country of residence in the EU”. What’s wrong with that as a statement? It reflects the current situation in general. However there is one exception, therefore the statement has to be qualified so as to exclude British citizens who live in France. But I am repeating myself again so I will go away.

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I agree with your points, but I still think Eurotunnel’s coms director isn’t too good a communicating. Which seems hilarious to me :joy: Maybe it would have made more sense announced through a muffled Tannoy with drop outs in transmission.

Has to be done in the same blocked nasal tone used in the old Tunes cold lozenges adverts…

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Apparently Germany is to remove the restrictions it placed on UK citizens.

Leaves France looking more like it is just political now.

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