• Login
  • Register
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Premium
  • Donate
  • Log In
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result

Cap Cost of Covid Tests at £40, Government Told by Tory MPs

by Michael Curzon
11 August 2021 10:21 PM
Doctor holding a Positive Result for COVID-19 with test kit for viral disease COVID-19 2019-nCoV. Lab card kit test for coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 virus. Fast test COVID-19.

Doctor holding a Positive Result for COVID-19 with test kit for viral disease COVID-19 2019-nCoV. Lab card kit test for coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 virus. Fast test COVID-19.

Brits are being priced out of holidays abroad due to the hefty costs of PCR tests, which Tory MPs say should be capped at £40 and scrapped altogether for holidaymakers returning to the U.K. from ‘low risk’ countries. The Telegraph has the story.

Senior Conservative MPs are calling on Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, to take immediate action to end “rip-off” prices of PCR tests that still average £75 per person and risk turning foreign holidays into the “preserve only of the wealthy”.

Writing for the Telegraph, Henry Smith, the Tory Chairman of the All-Party Future of Aviation Group said the Government should cap PCR tests at around £40 and scrap them for holidaymakers returning from “low-risk” countries.

“The rationale for the testing regime looks increasingly dubious. Why not, instead, sample a random group of arrivals rather than require everyone to pay for tests frequently run by shoddy companies failing to deliver tests on time and guilty of making hugely misleading price claims?” he wrote.

He was backed by Huw Merriman, Chairman of the Transport Select Committee, who published a letter he has sent to Mr Javid in which he urged the Government to give “serious consideration” to more “affordable” tests and rethink the need for PCR tests for passengers from Green and Amber List countries.

“The high cost, poor quality and lack of sequencing from PCR tests needs to be urgently addressed by the Government. They are an unnecessary barrier to affordable international travel,” he said. …

David Davis, a former Cabinet minister, said it would be “perfectly sensible” to cap test costs to prevent profiteering and axe the 20% VAT charge on PCR tests, which the Government say are necessary to prevent the import of Covid variants. …

Sir Graham Brady, Chairman of the powerful 1922 Conservative backbench committee, said: “Analysis of test results shows fewer positive test results than in the general population. If the Government is mandating so many tests, then it should also require providers to offer them at a reasonable cost.” …

Fewer than one in 50 travellers from Red or Amber countries are testing positive for Covid, while only one in 20 of those positive tests are being genome sequenced for variants because the presence of the virus in the samples is “vanishingly small” after being suppressed by the vaccine.

Worth reading in full.

Tags: Overseas TravelPCR TestTesting

Donate

We depend on your donations to keep this site going. Please give what you can.

Donate Today

Comment on this Article

You’ll need to set up an account to comment if you don’t already have one. We ask for a minimum donation of £5 if you'd like to make a comment or post in our Forums.

Sign Up
Previous Post

The Heresy of Heresies

Next Post

Public Health Scotland Admits That the Majority of People Hospitalised and Testing Positive for Covid Are Vaccinated

Subscribe
Login
Notify of
Please log in to comment

To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.

Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.

35 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
A Heretic
A Heretic
3 years ago

“The rationale for the testing regime looks increasingly dubious. Why not, instead, sample a random group of arrivals rather than require everyone to pay for tests frequently run by shoddy companies failing to deliver tests on time and guilty of making hugely misleading price claims?”

so why not drop it altogether?

Last edited 3 years ago by A Heretic
29
0
Hugh
Hugh
3 years ago
Reply to  A Heretic

Why have tests on people coming in from abroad? Are foreign variants any more dangerous than the thousands which will occur naturally in Britain? Having renamed the Indian variant, why this stigmatisation? Is it even possible to hold back the tide? Or advisable? Large scale international travel has surely resulted in stronger immune systems, and to tax travel to such a ludicrous degree is surely a nonsense for a bug within the range of severe flu. Unleess there is an ulterior motive.

5
0
Aleajactaest
Aleajactaest
3 years ago

Don’t mask, don’t test, don’t vaxx.

38
0
realarthurdent
realarthurdent
3 years ago
Reply to  Aleajactaest

Indeed. Zero co-operation. Zero compliance. Zero collaboration. That’s the kind of Zero COVID we need.

19
0
neilhartley
neilhartley
3 years ago
Reply to  Aleajactaest

Never did, never will, won’t.

5
0
sam s.j.
sam s.j.
3 years ago
Reply to  Aleajactaest

my thought too we just need to find each other in person and have more numbers

2
0
QuickDrawMcGraw
QuickDrawMcGraw
3 years ago
Reply to  sam s.j.

Very true, we may need to be able to put crowds together quickly if they really start to come down heavy!

1
0
chris c
chris c
3 years ago
Reply to  QuickDrawMcGraw

What do you mean “if”?

0
0
vlysander
vlysander
3 years ago

Still cannot believe people are getting tested using a test that doesnt find infection, is proven fraudlent and is barely as dangerous as flu.
Good luck people, I hope you wake the f up as we approach 18months down the line…

gotta take that fake vaccine though..

19
0
Hugh
Hugh
3 years ago

Silly money for a test for healthy people visiting their family – and then they put 20% VAT tax (why do we still have VAT anyway?) on top of that? That’s just highway robbery!

Sir Graham Brady may be biased, with Ringway Airport in his town, but he surely has a point. He’d be a sight better than Grant Shapps/Dick Turpin anyway.

Last edited 3 years ago by Hugh
6
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
3 years ago

The PCR test is being blatantly misused. It cannot identify poorliness, it cannot identify an illness which has itself not been identified.

It’s all FAKE. All a SCAM.

15
0
Fingerache Philip
Fingerache Philip
3 years ago

ALTERNATIVELY, STOP THE TESTING ALTOGETHER.
THE SHEEP WILL HAVE TO GET THEIR “TESTING” FIXES ON THE BLACK (SHEEP) MARKET

14
0
Hugh
Hugh
3 years ago
Reply to  Fingerache Philip

Baa baa…

5
0
Fingerache Philip
Fingerache Philip
3 years ago
Reply to  Hugh

Bleat,bleat!!

4
0
John
John
3 years ago
Reply to  Fingerache Philip

My first thought was stop testing, then it won’t cost anything. Except of course the VAT on the tests is more income for the government.

6
0
Hugh
Hugh
3 years ago
Reply to  John

the VAT is outrageous

3
0
watersider
watersider
3 years ago
Reply to  Hugh

Hugh,
As you seem to be the oracle on here, can you explain this lateral flow test to me please.
I am soon to participate in a major golf tournament and have been told I MUST have one.
Are they still doing that anal swab one which the Chinese were doing last year?

0
0
wendy
wendy
3 years ago
Reply to  watersider

I haven’t heard of the anal swab being used but I do a lateral flow test every time I want to visit my Dad who lives in a care home. They are still the made in China tests. They are a thin swab which is to swab your throat and one nostril (I only bother with nostril). The swab is then dipped in a fluid which is dripped on to a hole in the test plastic strip. A line appears showing positive or negative. Mine have always been negative since February, which doesn’t surprise me as I am certain I had covid in early 2020.

Hope that helps. At the moment I can get the tests free from a local test centre or the care home.

Last edited 3 years ago by wendy
0
0
Hugh
Hugh
3 years ago
Reply to  watersider

What Wendy said! 🙂

Tbh, I’ve never had a “test”, never used the pingdemic app. I’ve heard some terrible stories about them, and been told I must hold out against them. Still, some things are more important in life, I suppose, just go in with your eyes open…

1
0
JayBee
JayBee
3 years ago
Reply to  watersider

I suppose you are talking about and just need a self administered one, same as for the pilot scheme, like for the Goodwood FoS, for example.
Just unpack it, do nothing with it and register the number of the test as a negative with the NHS text messaging service, the instructions and links should be provided by the event organiser.

0
0
sam s.j.
sam s.j.
3 years ago
Reply to  watersider

say you are exempt i heard you can be exempt from testing too and good luck at golf tournament see if you can find fellow sceptics

Last edited 3 years ago by sam s.j.
0
0
Zoomer@14
Zoomer@14
3 years ago

Tests? That don’t even work. Its astonishing people are still talking about them let alone using them!

13
0
Rogerborg
Rogerborg
3 years ago

“Make bio-tyranny affordable to all” is not a sound argument.

4
0
Hugh
Hugh
3 years ago
Reply to  Rogerborg

how about make return flights to central Europe affordable to all?

2
0
RTSC
RTSC
3 years ago

But….. but ….. the whole point is to use this method to price the peasants out of their annual jaunt to the Costas!

Only the Prize Pigs will be allowed to fly in their Brave New World.

7
0
Hugh
Hugh
3 years ago
Reply to  RTSC

Yes but people who are desperate to see their relatives in central Europe for any number of reasons are suffering.

3
0
chris c
chris c
3 years ago
Reply to  RTSC

Yup already happening. Obviously private jets don’t affect The Climate.

0
0
chaos
chaos
3 years ago

even £40 is too much.. 3 or 4 tests can be the price of a return British Airways flight to France.

I hate this fucking government…

7
0
Hugh
Hugh
3 years ago
Reply to  chaos

I remember you used to be able to get a return flight to some places for forty pounds. An absolute disgrace what they’re doing.

5
0
PatrickF
PatrickF
3 years ago

Good to see Rishi Sunak enjoying the cricket at Lord’s. Thurday, is of course, his day off from worrying about the national debt. Howzat?

1
0
PatrickF
PatrickF
3 years ago

One jab, one kebab. Two jab, two kebab. Booster jab, three kebab. All served with gene altering sauce.

1
0
neilhartley
neilhartley
3 years ago

Just stop testing!!!

6
0
sam s.j.
sam s.j.
3 years ago

if we all refuse to do any tests they’ll stop

5
0
QuickDrawMcGraw
QuickDrawMcGraw
3 years ago

Here’s a radical idea I’m just going to throw out there. Instead of reducing the cost of these useless invasive tests, FUCKING BIN THEM!!!!

2
0
BungleIsABogan
BungleIsABogan
3 years ago

Cap Cost of Scrap Covid Tests at £40, Government Told by Tory MPs

Fixed.

3
0

NEWSLETTER

View today’s newsletter

To receive our latest news in the form of a daily email, enter your details here:

DONATE

PODCAST

In Episode 35 of the Sceptic: Andrew Doyle on Labour’s Grooming Gang Shame, Andrew Orlowski on the India-UK Trade Deal and Canada’s Ignored Covid Vaccine Injuries

by Richard Eldred
9 May 2025
1

LISTED ARTICLES

  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest

Sun-Dimming Quango has £800 Million of Taxpayer Money to Blow – and a CEO on £450k

8 May 2025

News Round-Up

9 May 2025

UK “Shafted” by US Trade Deal

8 May 2025

The Sugar Tax Sums Up Our Descent into Technocratic Dystopia

8 May 2025

What Does David Lammy Mean by a State?

9 May 2025

The Sugar Tax Sums Up Our Descent into Technocratic Dystopia

25

News Round-Up

22

Sun-Dimming Quango has £800 Million of Taxpayer Money to Blow – and a CEO on £450k

28

UK “Shafted” by US Trade Deal

12

What Does David Lammy Mean by a State?

9

Electric Car Bursts into Flames on Driveway and Engulfs £550,000 Family Home

9 May 2025

“I Was a Super Fit Cyclist Until I Had the Moderna Covid Vaccine. What Happened Next Left Me Wishing I Was Dead”

9 May 2025

Nature Paper Claims to Pin Liability for ‘Climate Damages’ on Oil Companies

9 May 2025

What Does David Lammy Mean by a State?

9 May 2025

In Episode 35 of the Sceptic: Andrew Doyle on Labour’s Grooming Gang Shame, Andrew Orlowski on the India-UK Trade Deal and Canada’s Ignored Covid Vaccine Injuries

9 May 2025

POSTS BY DATE

August 2021
M T W T F S S
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031  
« Jul   Sep »

SOCIAL LINKS

Free Speech Union
  • Home
  • About us
  • Donate
  • Privacy Policy

Facebook

  • X

Instagram

RSS

Subscribe to our newsletter

© Skeptics Ltd.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
wpDiscuz
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Premium
  • Donate
  • Log In

© Skeptics Ltd.

You are going to send email to

Move Comment
Perfecty
Do you wish to receive notifications of new articles?
Notifications preferences