Proof of immunity will be a passport back to normality
WHEN Tony Blair’s Labour Government proposed the introduction of identity cards in 2004, one young Conservative MP was appalled. Denouncing the potential loss of freedom and invasion of privacy, he declared that he would “physically eat” his rather than show it to the authorities.
That MP was Boris Johnson. Thanks partly to the ferocious opposition of figures like him, Labour was forced to drop its identity card scheme. Yet today Mr Johnson presides over a Government which, according to critics, is planning just as great an intrusion by the state.
In the wake of the vaccination programme’s phenomenal success, ministers are now considering whether to introduce Covid-19 immunity certificates, which would provide proof of inoculation. If such a policy were implemented, these socalled “vaccine passports” might be required for access to pubs, restaurants, sports venues, theatres, and even certain shops and workplaces.
As an instinctive libertarian, the Prime Minister is not an evangelist for the idea, admitting this week that it raises “deep and complex ethical issues.” Nevertheless, his Government has set up a review of the question under the Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove, while the development of the practicalities is well-advanced.
Only last month, it was revealed that grants of £450,000 have been given for work on eight separate schemes to research digital immunity documentation.
TO CAMPAIGNERS for civil liberties, this is all a step too far, transforming the vaccination rollout from an instrument of salvation into a tool of state oppression. They warn that the cry of “papers please”, so redolent of Big Brother totalitarianism and so alien to Britain, could soon echo across the country. Other arguments are put forward against immunity certificates, like the claim that they will discriminate against people who refuse the jab, even on justified grounds of religion or health. It is also said that the passports will involve a vast bureaucratic exercise, as well as the danger of creating a black market in bogus documentation.
Nor can the security or privacy of certificate holders be guaranteed. In our age of burgeoning online fraud, the vaccine databases could offer a rich harvest for ruthless criminals.
But such fears should not be exaggerated. The irony is that, for all the alarmist talk about the theoretical infringement of liberties, in practice these passports could help the return of freedom and normality.
By far the greatest curtailment of our basic civil rights in recent years has occurred through heavy-handed, if necessary, restrictions of lockdown. Vaccine certificates may offer us a way to break the shackles and become free citizens again.
In our sophisticated modern society, we already accept widespread intervention by the state for the greater public good, like the payment of income tax for vital services, or compliance with speed limits for road safety.
Similarly, the media is currently full of adverts for the 2021 census, urging us to fill in our forms and threatening £1,000 fines for those who don’t.
Compared to those demands, the stipulation to carry proof of inoculation hardly seems onerous. Indeed, the certificate may become available in the form of a simple mobile phone app of the sort that millions of consumers happily use every day. Such passports must not become a backdoor means of imposing compulsory vaccination. It would be a genuine outrage if the refusal to be jabbed were turned into a criminal offence. But there is nothing wrong with expecting citizens to show a sense of responsibility and reduce risks in the current Covid environment.
PROOF OF inoculation should be essential for vital front-line staff like medical professionals and care home workers, just as businesses have every right to demand the same from employees whose duties involve public contact, like bar or cinema assistants. “No jab, no job,” is the mantra of Charlie Mullins, the boss of the hugely successful Pimlico Plumbers, whose new recruits have to be vaccinated.
A recent Bristol University study found that two-thirds of respondents back vaccine passports and just 20 per cent are against. The reality is that such certificates are inevitable. They are already being adopted by other countries and are becoming a feature of international travel, from airlines to cruises.
As long as they are handled sensitively, their arrival in our domestic life, far from undermining our liberties, could accelerate our march back to freedom.
‘We already accept widespread intervention for the greater good’