July 26th - A note of caution for the Foreign Office's response to this summer's wildfires
Simon Calder's Independent Travel Podcast
The Independent
3.6 • 628 Ratings
🗓️ 26 July 2023
⏱️ 7 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Unusually today, I am playing the part of the Foreign Office – to justify the wise decision not to warn against travel to Rhodes and other parts of the Mediterranean despite the wildfires that are blazing. To do so would allow people booked to travel to cancel without penalty – but it would also mean holidaymakers who are enjoying trips would need to be flown home (and would cost the travel industry a fortune). During the Covid pandemic, the Foreign Office consular advice became a laughing stock, and it has to repair the damage. Making sweeping announcements to avoid certain destinations would be another step in the wrong direction.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me Simon Calder. It's Wednesday the 26th of July and a special mention today before I get going to the people of Cuba who are celebrating the, I guess guess holiest day in the revolutionary calendar. |
| 0:22.3 | It is Moncada Day commemorating Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. In particular, Fidel Castro and |
| 0:30.5 | his part in the failed attempt to attack the Moncada barracks in the beautiful city of Santiago de Cuba. |
| 0:40.9 | Anyway, that's enough of that. |
| 0:42.2 | Today, I am going to play the part of the Foreign Office. |
| 0:46.4 | Yes, I am. |
| 0:47.6 | Now, this is because there has been increasing calls for the Foreign Office to really come out and say, do not go to |
| 0:57.3 | roads because of the wildfires that have been spreading there. The Liberal Democrats, as you |
| 1:03.6 | will have heard, I think, said it's outrageous that the government hasn't warned against |
| 1:08.0 | going to roads because if it had then people would be able |
| 1:12.6 | to cancel and claim on their travel insurance which shows a slight lack of understanding if |
| 1:18.2 | the foreign office says do not travel then immediately holiday companies are in line to fly |
| 1:25.6 | everybody back and give people refunds if they've not yet gone. |
| 1:29.9 | So they're calling for that. |
| 1:31.4 | I've been speaking to a number of people, including a lady called Carol, who's going to |
| 1:38.1 | Sicily in a couple of weeks. |
| 1:40.1 | And she's seen that there's wildfires there. |
| 1:42.2 | And she's really worried about it. |
| 1:43.8 | And I absolutely sympathise with anybody she's really worried about it and I absolutely |
| 1:44.5 | sympathise with anybody who's apprehensive about their holiday instead of just looking forward to it |
| 1:50.3 | and she said well the foreign office should ban people from going there and I was honestly |
| 1:57.6 | as sympathetic as I could possibly be with her because I know what it's like |
... |
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