For many months now we have been told that our freedom is just a successful vaccination rollout away. I am pleased of course that more restrictions have been lifted and the Government did move to the final stage of the Roadmap.
This isn’t the freedom that was promised however. We are now in the midst of a “pingdemic” with hundreds of thousands told to self-isolate, the Government is continuing to urge caution and reserve in our daily activities and many businesses and transport networks are continuing to make masks mandatory. International travel remains fiendishly complicated.
I do believe the British public will live with these conditions for a period. They understand that the pandemic isn’t over.
What I am convinced the British public won’t accept, and what I will resist, is the biosecurity state that we risk creating if the Government plans for vaccine passports go ahead.
Because the Government have announced that from the end of September, when all over-18 year olds will have been offered both doses of the vaccine, vaccine passports will be mandatory to attend nightclubs or large events. Absurdly, there won’t even be the option of taking a test.
One has to wonder as to the aim of this policy. It surely can’t be to protect the vulnerable, who have nearly all been vaccinated. For the few who have refused the vaccine, they have made a deliberate choice to take that risk. If the aim is to reduce cases, then this is a largely pointless objective now that cases and hospitalisations/deaths have been decoupled. If the aim is to increase state control over the individual, then this is a sign of creeping state control over the individual, which must be opposed by all freedom loving people.
This would be a grotesque invasion on our personal liberty, after 16 months in which we have all sacrificed our most basic freedoms to protect others. I want to reassure the people of Romford that I will oppose it with all my might.
