Police Scotland officers have spoken to the writer Neil Gaiman who admitted to travelling more than 11,000 miles from New Zealand to his house in Skye in breach of Scotland’s lockdown rules.
The American Gods and Good Omens author said he travelled to Scotland so he could “isolate easily” after he and his wife Amanda agreed they “needed to give each other some space”.
Writing on his blog, he described how he flew “masked and gloved” from Auckland Airport to Los Angeles (LAX) and then on to London before borrowing a friend’s car and driving north to Skye.
Only essential journeys are permitted under lockdown rules in Scotland, with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon stressing the message north of the border is “stay at home”.
A statement from the Scottish police force confirmed the 59-year-old had been given “suitable advice”.
Inspector Linda Allan said: “Officers have visited Neil Gaiman and spoken to him about his actions.
“He has been given suitable advice about essential travel and reminded about the current guidelines in Scotland.”
SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford, who is also the MP for Skye, tweeted: “Can I just remind anyone else thinking of coming to the Highlands this is against the regulations.
“To come from the other end of the planet is gobsmacking. We will welcome all to the Highlands when it is safe to do so. For now stay away.”
Gaiman said he was in New Zealand with his wife and son Ash until two weeks ago, when the country went from level four of lockdown – which it had been on for the previous five weeks – to level three.
He compared his journey – from Auckland Airport to London via LAX – with “flying a week after 9/11: everything’s changed”.
In response to some criticism online, Gaiman responded: “I’m currently a UK taxpayer and on the Scottish voting rolls. I went home.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel