The following is an extract from Nick Corbishley’s new book Scanned: Why Vaccine Passports and Digital IDs Will Mean the End of Privacy and Personal Freedom and is reprinted with permission from the publisher.
When the European Union launched its Green Pass initiative in June 2021, it was supposedly intended to reopen the bloc’s borders and make international tourism possible once again. But within months it was being used by many Member States to exclude unvaccinated people from accessing many public spaces and basic services. Italy’s government has used its iteration of the Green Pass to effectively ban almost four million people from being able to earn a living. In Austria the government locked down around two million people for not being vaccinated, before relenting five days later and locking down everyone else.
This has happened despite the fact that the EU’s own Green Pass legislation stipulates that “[t]he issuance of [Covid] certificates… should not lead to discrimination on the basis of the possession of a specific category of certificate.” The Council of Europe, Europe’s preeminent human rights organisation, went even further, arguing not only that no one should be “discriminated against for not having been vaccinated” but also that the vaccination should not be mandatory.
To complement its Green Pass, the EU has already launched a digital wallet that will be used to store peoples’ surnames, first names, dates and place of birth, gender or nationality, as well as enable Europeans to identify themselves online. This is part and parcel of the digital identity revolution being spearheaded by organisations like the World Economic Forum, Gavi, and ID2020.
In a similar vein, the U.K. Government quietly announced on December 27th 2021, just weeks after introducing its vaccine passport system, plans to develop a “digital identity and attributes trust framework” that will “enable employers and landlords (letting agents) to use certified identification document validation technology (IDVT) service providers to carry out digital identity checks on their behalf for many who are not in scope to use the Home Office online services, including British and Irish citizens, from April 6th 2022”.
Once vaccine passport/digital ID systems are established, mission creep is virtually guaranteed. But don’t take my word for it; the French defence contractor Thales Group laid it out in an internal blog authored by its Head of Digital Identity Services Portfolio, Kristel Teyras:
The ambition is huge; both in terms of scale – as it applies to all EU member states – and also in the power it would grant to citizens throughout the Bloc. For the first time, citizens would be able to use a European Digital Identity wallet, from their phone, that would give them access to services in any region across Europe.
Note Teyras’s use of the verb “would be able to” in the second sentence. As German finance journalist Norbert Häring points out, “if we want to remove the gloss . . . we would only have to replace ‘be able to’ with ‘have to.’”
That sounds a bit scarier, doesn’t it?” asks Häring.
One of the companies involved in the development of the U.K.’s COVID-19 vaccine passport, the U.S. IT firm Entrust, said that the vaccine passport system could also be “redeployed” as a national ID card. This is despite the fact that a previous digital ID card scheme was scrapped in 2011 following a public outcry against the intrusion and potential for human rights violations it would entail.
In a blog written shortly before Entrust was awarded a £250,000 contract in May 2021 to provide the cloud software for the U.K.’s vaccine certification system, the company’s product marketing manager Jenn Markey noted that:
Vaccine credentials can become part of the infrastructure of the new normal. … Why not redeploy this effort into a national citizen ID program that can be used for multiple purposes, including the secure delivery of government services, secure cross-border travel, and documentation of vaccination.
‘Digital wallet’ suggests that economic activity could become an integral part of the frameworks’ functions, a prospect that should terrify anyone but which Teyras describes as “really exciting.” The U.K.’s former Prime Minister and leading vaccine passport advocate Tony Blair also raised this possibility in an address to WEF members: “Digital ID can play a part in Covid but also if you think of the transactions that you want to do now with your customers, it’s much simpler for them if they have a digital identity.”
Merging Your Health with Your Money
Many of the same companies and organisations that are driving the roll out of digital IDs are also pressing for the elimination of cash transactions. These companies and organizations include global banks, fintech start-ups, big tech giants, and credit card companies. The European Commission has already announced a plan to cap cash payments at €10,000 across the EU despite fierce opposition among cash-loving countries, such as Austria and Germany.
Of course, in a world of increasing government surveillance and control, cash is one of the last vestiges of personal freedom and privacy we have left.
“Cash gives people a sense of security, independence, and freedom,” said Gernot Blümel, Austria’s former Finance Minister. “We want to preserve that freedom for people.”
Other countries have other ideas, though. Even before the cash limit had been introduced, the French Government was advocating for a lower limit. Norbert Häring describes how this tactic conforms with the recommendations of an IMF paper on ways to abolish cash even in the face of popular resistance, “starting with a high, unoffensive limit and lowering it progressively”.
From the onset of the pandemic, cash has been suggested as a possible vector of infection. In early March 2020, in response to a question about whether banknotes could spread the coronavirus, a World Health Organisation (WHO) spokesperson said: “Yes, it’s possible, and it’s a good question. We know that money changes hands frequently and can pick up all sorts of bacteria and viruses… when possible it’s a good idea to use contactless payments.”
Legacy media outlets pounced on the WHO’s comments and magnified them, sparking fears over the safety of cash. The WHO has since walked back its comments, arguing that it was not advocating for people to abandon the use of cash, only that they should wash their hands after handling it.
Central banks have also attempted to dampen public fears. But at the same time many of those central banks, including the People’s Bank of China, the Federal Reserve Bank, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England, are exploring the possibility of introducing their own central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, in the near future.
Combining digital currencies with digital IDs while phasing out, or even banning, the use of cash would grant governments and central banks the ability not only to track every purchase we make (and made in the past) but also to determine what we can and cannot spend our money on. They could also prevent certain ‘undesirable’ people from buying anything. Anyone with a blocking notice attached to their digital identity would “thus be unable to do many of the most basic things independently”, says Häring. Central banks could even issue stimulus funds with an expiration date, forcing people to spend rather than save.
Cash and CBDC are a world apart, as Agustín Carstens, the President of the Bank of International Settlements, the central bank of central banks, conceded in an interview:
We don’t know who’s using a $100 bill today and we don’t know who’s using a 1,000 peso bill today. The key difference with the CBDC is the central bank will have absolute control on the rules and regulations that will determine the use of that expression of central bank liability, and also we will have the technology to enforce that.
For central banks the introduction of CBDCs will provide a huge fillip to the power they already wield over the economy. It also means they will enter in direct competition with the banks they are supposed to regulate. Some economists have even warned that high street lenders, particularly smaller ones, could end up going under as savers switch their money into a secure digital account with their respective central bank at the slightest whiff of a financial crisis.
For the public, the benefits are less existent while the risks are huge. In the U.K., a Politico survey of 2,500 adults found Brits “harbour more suspicion about central bank-backed digital currencies (CBDCs) than excitement”. Just 24% of those surveyed believed the digital pound would bring more benefits than harm, while 30% said the opposite; 73% of respondents expressed concern about the threat of cyberattacks and hackers. The prospect of losing payment privacy worried 70%.
Even proponents of CBDCs admit that central bank digital currency could have serious drawbacks, including further exacerbating income and wealth inequality.
“The rich might be more capable than others of taking advantage of new investment opportunities and reaping more of the benefits,” says Eswar Prasad, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute and author of The Future of Money: How the Digital Revolution Is Transforming Currencies and Finance. “As the economically marginalized have limited digital access and lack financial literacy, some of the changes could harm as much as they could help those segments of the population.”
So, not only will the introduction of CBDCs strip global citizens of one of the last vestiges of freedom, privacy, and anonymity (i.e., cash), it could also exacerbate the upward transfer of wealth that many societies have witnessed since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
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Billionaires Fund Extreme Net Zero
latest leaflet to print at home and deliver to neighbours or forward to politicians, media, friends online.
https://youtu.be/QMgr0qbpB9M?si=KIPh36hrS71M0ERN
Mahyar Tousi and a short vid about the German farmers protests.
Downticker – please explain your viewpoint
Leftism
Michael, downtickers are best ignored. I have a couple of trolls always following me.
Happy and go lucky just like Canada! I wonder if the Justin Germans will get heavy handed with them too? I like food! Long live the farmers
https://www.thesun.co.uk/health/25293827/jn1-masks-covid-big-devious-new-strain/
“Professor Peter Openshaw, a virus expert at Imperial College London.”
Despite scores and scores of papers totally refuting the mask nonsense an alleged Professor from wherelse but Imperial College says that they should be reintroduced to combat a virus with symptoms identical to a bad cold / ‘flu.
Conclusion – he is a professor in name only and is decidedly not a ‘virus expert.’ And the final confirmation – he works for the Billy Gates funded Imperial College.
I rest my case.
You beat me to the same conclusion!
The problem is that measures that were once used to (sopposedly) combat a (supposedly) exceptionally deadly virus are now being proposed for respiratory diseases we’ve always tolerated without problem.
It’s as if they are desperate to reduce society’s tolerance level of disease.
That way, more control, more medications.
Bastards.
One of many predictions made by sceptics when this started was that measures allegedly brought in to “combat” “covid” would logically get extended to flu etc, given that “covid” (if it exists) is just another flu/bad cold. Another “conspiracy theory” come true.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/health/25293827/jn1-masks-covid-big-devious-new-strain/
said virologist is from Imperial College! Who would have thought it. Services to the corruption of science continue.
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/joey-barton-v-woke-united-its-a-walkover/
John Ellwood over at TCW with a delightful article on how Joey Barton is gunning for the wokerati – and winning. Wonderful.
Some twat government minister has decided he has to chip in
Joey Barton comments on women are ‘dangerous’, says sports minister Stuart Andrew – BBC Sport
WTF do we need a “sports minister”? What has sport got to do with the state? They can’t even do the basics.
The see you next Tuesday has said he will “speak to social media companies” to see what can be done about Barton. I hope Musk tells him to do one.
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/vaccine-firms-can-fool-governments-but-not-the-markets/
Paula Jardine on terrific form at TCW where she takes apart the grotesque “vaccine” industry. A couple of billions is small change but the market is collapsing.
“THREE years after the launch of mRNA gene therapy vaccines, all now proven to be both harmful and ineffective, the share prices of all three of the companies involved – BioNTech, Pfizer and Moderna – have plummeted. The invisible hand of the market is acting where governments and regulators refused.”
You can fool some people all of the time! You know the rest
”Adel Sidi Yakoub’s abusive treatment and misogynist views of women are learned from his Islamic faith and his Prophet’s example.”
In a controversial video that has sparked widespread debate on social media, Adel Sidi Yakoub, a French Muslim footballer and TikTok influencer, has publicly outlined a series of Islamic rules that he expects his future wife to adhere to. In his video titled “My wife will not have the right,” which he posted on January 6, Adel, who plays for Entente Sportive Pays d’Uzes in the Gard department, outlines what he describes as “very reasonable” restrictions.
Adel asserts that his wife will be barred from having male friends, emphasizing his role as her only friend and confidant. This is just the start of a series of prohibitions that also extend to her work and social life. He insists she should not work in an environment where men are present and should not travel without him, though he makes exceptions for family members such as her brother or father.
The footballer, who also has a significant following on Instagram with over 83,000 followers, does not stop there. He dictates a strict dress code for his future wife, forbidding her from wearing tight-fitting clothes and suggesting, although not insisting, that wearing a veil would be ideal.”
https://rairfoundation.com/french-muslim-footballer-popular-influencer-lists-his-future/
Oh Mogs, It’s so saddening to witness that video!
I know, Dinger. He’s basically outing himself as a domestic abuser before he’s even got a partner! Where is the respect? Well there is none when you demean women and view them as possessions, mere ‘things’, not remotely your equal, to own and control with zero rights, other than those you deem ‘allowable’. The saddest thing is that this would all be considered ”normal” in the Islamic culture but it’s literal abuse by Western standards. I mean, controlling what somebody wears ( anything other than a tent is forbidden, it looks like ) or forbidding them to go anywhere without you, forbidding your partner from working with men…WTAF is that other than out and out abuse of somebody’s freedom and basic human rights? Sick culture, sick attitude.
I see the resident Misogynist Society disagree though. No surprises there. They love a bit of abuse of/hostility towards women and evidently have serious psychological issues. I just hope none of them are married and/or are the fathers of daughters…. Nasty.
Totally agree
I was brought up to respect and care for women and children, protect and help them, even go to war and die for them (not the king, f him)! I cannot fathom this satanic attitude
Well would you Adam and Eve it…Hardlines has been fiddling with my post, yet again, and has erased the opening paragraph. He’s not happy unless he’s done a shift that has involved editing/removing my posts.
Obviously no explanation given though. Because that would involve basic respect. Free speech for the win, eh?? LOL Don’t stop the censorship whatever you do, Mr Gestapo!
I’m obviously on a ”list”, Dings, the way he continues to follow me around. Who knew little ole Mogs could be so controversial!?
Having read the https://trusttheevidence.substack.com/p/smokescreens-part-7 , it’s statement that “In the most extreme case, barely believable, the Care Quality Commission let the nursing home provider decide the cause of death” reminded me once more of the old Harold Shipman case. The theme of the article being that they just don’t know, and by implication the ONS output was severely undermined.
The post office scandal is tragic, but really old news.
Why is it now all of a sudden mainstream news?
Because it is highlighting exactly what a monumentally hypocritical @$$#0£€ Sir Ed Davey is, and by implication the Lib Dems and the other scum infesting Westminster in general
“scum infesting Westminster in general”
liblabconsgreen!
Boy, do we need change!
He’s also a climate botherer, right dodgy geezer. Was my parents’ MP.
Because there is a film (apparently quite good) on Neflix.
Correction: it’s either BBC or ITV, not sure but basically there is a film that has recently come out about it and it is getting word of mouth traction.
If youre asking why is it being kept in the news, see Boomer Bloke’s answer.
“The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), whose remit is supposed to be to save those in peril at sea, has become a taxi service for illegal immigrants.
The French coastal authorities make no attempt to prevent the dinghies from leaving their shores. Instead, they escort them into English waters, and the RNLI does the rest. The migrants typically arrive in Kent, on the south English coast. Although the migrants keep their documentation to get across Europe, they ditch it once on the water. Doing so prevents British authorities from determining their country of origin and thus makes them more difficult to remove. If the English Channel were trawled tomorrow, more passports and cellphones would be netted than fish.”
https://www.unz.com/article/a-special-relationship-comparing-us-and-uk-immigration/
Thanks team for deleting my other post and thereby confirming that you are neither a true advocate of free speech nor able to handle the truth.
Just thought this was amazingly humorous!
News flash- war is not good for the planet !
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/09/emissions-gaza-israel-hamas-war-climate-change
“Paula Vennells has bowed to pressure to hand back her CBE”
That showed her, ugh!
Now prison for life!
“Lloyds are paying the price for firing Carl Borg-Neal”
I’m sure 800 grand is going to bring lloyds to its knees!
“Why the Rwanda Bill doesn’t go far enough”
Go far enough? It hasn’t gone anywhere!
give us strength!
‘India’s plans to double coal production ignore climate threat”
Then India will prosper!
“Corbyn to join South Africa’s delegation accusing Israel of genocide”
Please Jezza, start your own party! Imagine all the brain dead numptie votes he’ll take off starmageddon if he does!