I needed to visit Germany to do some research for my forthcoming book, but my experience was pretty awful: I think Welsh people should be made aware of some of the rather dubious hurdles in place that may well deter the less determined.

Having booked a Covid self-test from Boots, I did it on Sunday, August 1 and then tried to hunt down one of these mysterious ‘Prioity Post-Boxes’ that are labelled with stickers from which to send the Covid test to the lab.

The Royal Mail site indicated several in the Builth area where I live, although one made me a little suspicious as it appeared to be sited in Llanelwedd Quarry!

I failed to find this or any of the others, and the lovely ladies at the Covid Vaccination Centre at the Royal Welsh Showground couldn’t help either, although they did their best.

I abandoned the test and arranged for an express one at Heathrow Airport the evening before flying, hoping it would work.

It was very efficient, worked like a dream and I was away next day.

On my return the shadow Welsh health minister, Russell George, told me the Welsh Government ‘do not want to make it easy for people to travel outside the UK’.

I was appalled.

Had they been responsible for the Royal Mail’s crazy priority box policy? Clearly Welsh ministers are hiding behind the Westminster Government’s decisions on foreign travel, not wanting to appear autocratic by stating they did not want to let Welsh people go abroad, but acting behind people’s backs to discourage them and creating dreadful uncertainties and stress, as well as extra expense.

People need to see relatives abroad, work abroad and take well-earned holidays abroad without the Welsh Government creating mischief of a particularly sordid kind.

Additionally the cost of these tests for Welsh folk is greater than for the English, and the CTM PCR test on return is far more invasive and I it found rather nasty.

These people are encouraging profiteering over Covid at the expense of Welsh people.

I strongly feel that it is in the interests of the Welsh people to be made aware of these appalling problems imposed on us.

They will certainly exacerbate the brain drain from the Prinipality. We desperately need honesty from government, and Wales is falling far short on this.

David Bellamy,

artist and author, Builth Wells