In today’s Spectator, I’ve set out the case against making sports fans produce a ‘Covid Status Certificates’ as a condition of allowing them into stadiums after May 17th. I’m going to set out the case in full for Lockdown Sceptics tomorrow, but in the meantime here’s an extract from the Spectator article:
The first and most obvious objection is that it’s a breach of my liberty. It’s an inversion of the Common Law principle that everything should be permitted unless the law specifically prohibits it. Under this scheme, I am only allowed to do something if permitted to do so by law, which is the principle underlying the Napoleonic Code. As a freeborn Englishman, I prefer the Common Law tradition, which was one of my reasons for supporting Brexit.
It’s also discriminatory. I don’t just mean it will discriminate against those who haven’t been vaccinated or can’t otherwise demonstrate they are ‘safe’, but against those groups more likely to be suspicious of vaccines and who cannot afford alternative forms of certification. We know that vaccine hesitancy is higher among the UK’s black, Pakistani and Bangladeshi populations. Do we really want to see fewer of these spectators at sporting events? True, there are alternative ways of demonstrating you’re not an infection risk, such as getting a PCR test, but if you don’t want to jump through a lot of hoops they cost a minimum of £120. And an unvaccinated sports fan would have to get it redone before every fixture. For those who’ve had COVID-19, there’s the option of getting an antibody test, but you can’t get those on the NHS unless you work in primary care, social care or education.
In short, if the Government makes entry to sporting venues contingent on having a vaccine passport, it will be discriminating against minorities and the less well-off.
You can read the whole article on the Spectator‘s website.
Stop Press: The Guardian had a story on its front page today saying the Equalities and Human Rights Commission thinks a general certification scheme could fall foul of anti-discrimination law because it would restrict access to essential services for those groups less likely to get vaccinated – including migrants, those from minority ethnic backgrounds and those on low incomes.
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I’d be very careful about resorting to “But, but, discrimination” arguments, for the simple reason that the goal isn’t vaccination, but compliance with the system.
So I’m confidently predicting that green smiley faces will be awarded to anyone who claims that they can’t get vaccinated, or just doesn’t want to, making the can’t/won’t argument moot. It also makes the “vaccine passports” moot for infection control, but given that’s not the point of them, it’s not a problem for the regime.
The goal is to get us used to begging the State for permission every time we travel, recreate, transact or interact. So the answer will always be “yes, you may”. At first.
Once they have full compliance with the system, then the squeeze will begin.
Unless we’re talking about discrimination against people who don’t want to get vaccinated for their own private reasons, I agree. As soon as you start pointing at groups who “can’t” you leave the door open to vaccine passport with exemptions for “medical” reasons and you’ve conceded the principle.
I agree, noncompliance is the key; I refuse to wear a mask, I don’t use hand sanitiser, I hug, kiss and shake hands, I have never been tested and never will, I certainly won’t consent to an experimental drug for a minor respiratory virus.
Noncompliance.
I’m with you Winston.
Totally agree. Once you comply they have you and will turn the screw
I salute people like you because you are very brave to defy this new societal norm. I don’t wear a mask either, because I have lung damage from a nasty bout of covid and have some breathing difficulty. I still get stared at in supermarkets, and recently a horrified little boy cried out “Mummy – that lady’s not wearing a mask!” That upset me hugely, the way they’re messing with our childrens’ minds. But nobody has yet had a go at me, though I always expect it and have my answers ready.
But I’m not sure I would be brave enough to go maskless without a ‘valid’ reason. Well done to you.
Not to mention procreate!!!
Toby, there is simply no excuse for vaxx passports at all.
Do not make the same mistake as with wokeness and climate change, by signalling that you are prepared to give some ground.
We all know how and where that ends.
They eliminate the principle and right to ones bodily autonomy and constitute discrimination the moment they come into existence.
(Like masks, which is why the self-exempt option was introduced and why businesses don’t challenge the exempt.)
The entertained outsourcing of the execution of that discrimination to businesses is another fundamental breach of law and of all our principles, solely born out of government’s cowardness and the legal constraints for government mandates as such due to the above.
This outsourcing puts businesses above the law and creates dangerous, open-ended precedence.
It eliminates the rule of law in this country in vast parts.
Government and MPs should abolish themselves, half the police and 3/4 of the judiciary if they allow that to happen or are even in favour of it.
They are unfit for those jobs anyway, as proven by them just contemplating this.
I agree with you. I replied to the Cabinet Office request for views of the proposed covid-free passports, bearing in mind I’m just an ordinary person, no medical or legal training etc. They wanted replies in the areas of medical, legal, delivery, operation at venues, employers and equality considerations. I put comments in all and then finished – there are major holes in every area – with general comments about the fact the pandemic is effectively over.
Why would they think of introducing what is effectively an ID card with a bonus of discrimination thrown in for anyone who can’t/won’t have the vaccine. It otherwise means constant testing that effectively lies about the person’s covid-free status.
It is impossible to administer in a fair way and give the true position of infectiousness.
Why have they created this review, when they haven’t stated it’s purpose? It’s the means to an end, but what end?
Last but not least, when you add up natural immunity in the population, those who’ve had the vaccine, those who’ve been infected already and the largely immune child population, what is left? A rapidly diminishing rump – and no, I do not accept the endless cries of fear over new variants, none of which has made a significant difference.
And this from Twitter.
“Rupert Lowe
@RupertLowe10
·
5m
Lots of polling is showing overwhelming support for vaccine papers.
I commissioned my own polling on their use, especially in hospitality, and it’s not so clear cut at all.
Will be talking with @JuliaHB1
on @talkRADIO
about the results tomorrow at around 09.10. Tune in!”
I’ll never go to St Mary’s if I have to show one of those things as a condition of entry !! And thats after 50 years of watching the team.
Going to be lots of hand wringing from Vaccine zealots on the left. How can they divide their pet brown people who haven’t taken the vaccine from the evil white people who haven’t taken it either?
I too argued for the common law system over the Napoleonic when discussing Brexit, but so far I have been underwhelmed by our legal response to NPI measures compared with that of continental countries such as Portugal, Germany and the Netherlands. On the other hand the difficulties the Government has had in creating regulation based on what is allowed have highlighted the bureaucratic nightmare associated with legislating for every eventuality. I wouldn’t hold your breath if mounting a legal challenge against vaccine passports here, there is rot at the heart of the system.
There’s also this: Young athletes – from highs schools through college to the professional ranks – have literally NO risk of dying from COVID-19. I say this because sports has actually been taking place since August in many places. I have yet to read one article about an athlete who died from COVID and maybe only a handful who had to be hospitalized from the disease. In America, there are approximately 8 million athletes who participate in organized sports from the high school level up. So anyone can easily calculate the “mortality” odds for athletes … based on 9 months of observable data. I have also yet to read one story that definitively identified a “super spreader” event that originated from fans attending an outdoor sporting event. Nor is the FACT that COVID poses virtually no risk to athletes “new” news. This could have been known in May or June of 2020 – well before sports leagues and universities and professional teams mandated all of these draconian and unnecessary testing protocols and mandated periods of isolation or “quarantines” for non-sick, non-infected athletes. BTW, these policies largely remain in effect today. I wrote the article linked below in July of 2020. In it, I said sports poses no risks to athletes. Nine months later I wouldn’t change a word. Compare and contrast my piece to those of all the pundits and experts who predicted “disaster” if sports were not cancelled.
https://uncoverdc.com/2020/07/31/covid-19-poses-virtually-no-health-risk-to-athletes/
Opinion journalists – who help “establish the narrative” – are seldom held accountable when previous statements and predictions they made on a given topic look ridiculous in hindsight.
On the topic of “health and safety” to athletes and the wisdom of allowing sports to be played, here are a few comments I saved from my state’s leading sports columnist. (I actually emailed this columnist and “reminded” him of some of the things he’d written. He told me I took his views “out of context” and still maintains that he was not “essentially lobbying” (my characterization) for the cancellation of sports.
I pointed out to this columnists that all of the wonderful sporting events that did take place in our state (for example, Alabama winning a national title in football and the university’s football team having one of its best seasons ever in basketball – events he had written about in glowing terms) would NOT have happened if he’d gotten his wish.
The columnists also made the point that it was easy for me to critique his words in hindsight. Basically, he was implying that no one could have known in July 2020 that no athlete would suffer serious health consequences from playing sports. In response, I sent him a link to the article I wrote in July on this very topic (see link above) – Some of us knew this even then … we just didn’t get our articles published at news sites that reached a mass audience.
From an Aug. 14th column:
“In the end, the college football seasons needed to be canceled in the Big Ten and Pac-12… It’s hard to argue with the Pac-12′s assessment …”
“… How can the SEC risk playing football this season when the Pac-12 said (what it said) in an official study?”
“… It didn’t have to be this painful, or maddening.”
From a July 24th column:
“We probably shouldn’t be playing football this fall. I’ve held out hope for so long, but it’s starting to look pretty obvious that it’s a bad idea.”
“… We so badly want there to be college football this season, but it’s hard to see that happening now. The simple fact that it’s even still being discussed is just another example of what’s wrong with the sport.”
“… If we play football this season, it’s really going to be a miserable experience for the unpaid players who are risking their health to save it all.”
“ … It is all so desperate and sad, but what’s worse is that the players are being treated like lab mice in a cage.”
From a July 29th column:
“Maybe we just can’t have football.”
“…. Let’s say I’m starting to have serious doubts. Sports that aren’t being played inside a bubble are failing before they even really start …”
“… We might play college and pro football this fall, but no one should be pretending like we can do it safely and without significantly increasing the risk of outbreaks during a pandemic.”
From an Oct 15th column:
“This game seems so unimportant now, this season so unnecessary.”
“… This season was already an asterisk in the history books. It’s turning into a disaster.”
“… (Alabama Coach Nick) Saban has COVID-19, so the question needs to be asked, is it really that safe to be doing this?”
“These are amateur athletes who want to play in the NFL, and they’re putting their lungs and who knows what else at risk for nothing. Madness.”
I was a school teacher for ten years before the job made me sick with overwork and I quit. Every year (or two) schools paid for us to have a CRB (criminal records check) – now called a DBS (disclosure barring service) check. I met supply teachers who were expected to pay for a DBS for every agency they worked for. It was obvious it had become a means of generating revenue. The system was set up in the wake of the Soham murders and the irony is that Huntley may have had a clean DBS in many towns and cities.
In fact the certificates stopped some innocent decent people going into teaching (and other professions) because ‘crimes’ committed long ago in the heady crazy days of youth could find themselves blackballing your future chances for several years. For example, cautions for internet wrong think (writing mean things on the internet) or stealing a chocolate bar. Even things you were or are suspected of could find their way on to the certificate depending on your particular police force.
The fat lying adulterous dictator’s vaccine passport is not just CCP evil.. but it is also a shitty attempt to turn the NHS track and trace into something ‘meaningful’. The industry and quangos that govern the passport will then become large and unstoppable. It will become an industry. It will become permanent.
What a pity we live in such a selfish world. If anyone had any decency or understanding of democracy, there would be a boycott of these venues as we are now talking medical apartheid.
In the 1960s when there was real solidarity with each other people refused to visit any venue where people were segregated due to skin colour. It seems today there is far too much division, caused by successive government policies.
It will be interesting how the snooker works out, starting tomorrow at the Crucible. Compulsory LFT before entry, T&T (no paper option) and PCR afterwards, masks in arena. Hopefully their 100% capacity on the final will have loads of empty seats, but bet your bottom dollar they will find enough guinea pigs who will accept it.
I don’t agree with a PCR test before entering sports stadia. You don’t need a test for influenza! in any event, if you were not well you certainly wouldn’t be going out.
It’s to promote repeated vaccines to give profit to Pfizer etc, and its to set up absolute health tyranny for the future, as other vaccine and test requirements are added.
We have to oppose everything this Government is doing in the area of Covid under the control of Ferguson.
They have ruthlessly taken thousands of lives, not least in their refusal to consider treating early stage Covid, because the whole plan from the start was the vaccines.
Seems dangerous ground to me, to be playing wokeness (race & immigration) against whatever other form of repression you call this is. The whole thing sounds like psyop to this end
Since when throughout this sorry saga have our inglorious leaders and their advisers responded according to common sense, factual evidence, or in peoples ‘actual interests?