Dan Wootton: Vaccine passports are coercion pure and simple

So did the government really mean it when they said we must learn to live with coronavirus and were going to rely on personal responsibility rather than draconian freedom restricting laws going forward? I only ask because, in a very concerning development, they plan to make domestic vaccine passports the law for large venues like nightclubs and concerts if they fail to implement them on a voluntary basis.

Here's what Boris Johnson said about this:

"As a matter of social responsibility we're urging nightclubs and other venues with large crowds to make use of the NHS Covid pass, which shows proof of vaccination, a recent negative test or natural immunity as a means of entry."

That’s quite a U-turn for the Prime Minister who once said of state-mandated ID cards: “I will take that card out of my wallet and physically eat it in the presence of whatever emanation of the state has demanded that I produce it.”

It will also be devastating for the events industry, with only 71 per cent of pre-pandemic turnover as a result, according to government analysis, a loss of £3.5 billion. But this coronavirus-inspired authoritarianism is disturbingly spreading across the globe.

French president Macron last night said the use of compulsory vaccine passports are going to be so extreme that the unjabbed will be unable to buy food at a shop or ride on a bus. That’s coercion pure and simple. The country’s high rate of vaccine hesitancy has seen the president threaten to introduce compulsory vaccines too.

Macron said: ‘We must go towards vaccination of all French people, it is the only way towards a normal life... we may need to ask ourselves the question of mandatory vaccination for all.’ What a disturbing twist that the state might start to control what we put in our bodies.

There’s no excuse and politicians must think of the long-term damage they will create with an already distrusting part of the population. But we’re not facing the same issue as France. Our vaccine hesitancy is one of the lowest in the world.

So it remains truly shocking to me the lack of faith UK governments and much of the media has in the British people to safely live our lives. It will be a complete tragedy for British freedom if one of the legacies from this pandemic is a biosecurity state. But worryingly that’s where we seem to be headed.