Listen up: Your holiday to Wales is not more important than our health

Since the First Minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford, announced the Welsh Government would enforce a travel ban on those travelling into Wales from UK Covid hotspots, people have suddenly become very angry and claim it’s a “draconian measure” and that he’ll “kill the Welsh economy.” Neither of those quotes were from a Welsh person either.

I’m sorry you’re missing out on your weekend away in Pembrokeshire,  but if the roles were reversed, you would happily block out the Welsh from coming in with no problem.

Stop saying your holiday is the lifeline of our economy. It isn’t.

Countless times I have been on Twitter and seen some middle-aged man complain that his holiday is now cancelled and that Drakeford will be very sorry, as he’s “asking” for the economy to crash. Come on Dave, is your two-day break in Carmarthen really going to crush us? No. It is not, so pack it in, we’ve all had to deal with cancelled holidays this year.

If you’re THAT concerned about Wales’ economy, just postpone your holiday, and come back WHEN YOU ARE ALLOWED.

Sure Wales is a beautiful country, and I would definitely recommend anyone to come here, but don’t get angry when you get stopped from entering because your area is a high-risk hotspot which can lead to a significant spread within Wales. Your holiday can wait, our health, and NHS, cannot.

Our economy is already buggered, we’ve entered a recession, so I highly doubt your holiday would even make a dent to the damage that has already been done. But what your holiday could do is infect hundreds of the Welsh population. SCORE! Dave 1 – Wales – 0.

That’s not an exaggeration, the infection rate already is 128.7 per 100,000 in Wales and for comparison Liverpool has a 642.3 per 100,000. So do not think you travelling here wouldn’t make a difference, because it COULD. And before you do, I know you’re going to say it… “But Wales is a small country”, that doesn’t matter, what matters is how careless you are towards the Welsh because of one stupid holiday.

I also did the extra research: Wales as a whole has a population of 3.1 million, Liverpool on the other hand, has a population of 902,000…So put that into perspective, Dave.

It’s the lack of respect for me…

It’s the classic tale between the English and the Welsh

Where is all this tension coming from? Seriously? You’re going to argue with a Welsh person on Twitter because you can’t come in right now? It has nothing to do with hate… on a normal day you’d be welcomed with open arms, but currently our government are just serious about sorting this pandemic out, unlike yours.

In fact, when Mark Drakeford first asked Boris Johnson to enforce the travel ban, Johnson said no. He said no for absolutely no reason. So our FM took it into his own hands, and the ban is officially in place. So surely, you should be thanking Boris for saying no, he had your back, but he didn’t have ours. He was willing to allow people to travel back and forth into Wales, knowing full well it would cause a spike in cases here and in turn, cause many people to become very ill.

Thanks Boris, we feel so safe with you in power right now. They clearly care SO much about Wales… not! So much for the ‘United’ Kingdom, am I right?

Please just stop. Why do you need to complain about a government and a country that has nothing to do with you? In all honesty, it comes across as disrespectful and sometimes Anti-Welsh, and I’m not here for that.

It’s already stressful enough for students

As students in Wales, it’s frustrating enough to have tighter restrictions than other parts of the UK, and although we get it’s necessary, the risk of people coming to Wales and making the situation worse is irritating.

Being a fluent Welsh speaker in uni is already draining, as quite often we’re faced with constant mocking of our Welsh culture.

We often get mocked by our language. Sure, you’ll definitely hear “what’s even the point in speaking Welsh?”, or, “you’re a part of Britain” so why would we need a second language? The same goes for middle-aged know-it-all’s like you, Dave, who thinks we do not need a separate Government…HAVE YOU SEEN THE STATE OF YOURS?

Sure, not everyone is perfect and we definitely can’t say our government is, but at least our government didn’t vote against starving children. Surely you should be complaining about that, instead of complaining about the Welsh Government cancelling your two-day trip to the Brecon Beacons.

I bet, that now Wales are currently in a fire-break lockdown, you’re even angrier, but why? Angry because the Welsh are proving to have a better government, and perhaps after this, we’ll be somewhat free while you’re locked up at home bashing Anti-Welsh comments at your keyboard.

This should be a time where we all look out for each other, not complaining that your Air BnB cancelled on you, Dave x

(To clarify, Dave is not a real person, and is actually a name I nabbed from Gavin and Stacey.)

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• Welsh Government to ban travel to Wales from UK Covid Hotspots

• Everything you can and cannot do under new fire break lockdown rules 

• Wales to enter a two-week ‘fire break’ lockdown